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Our    Political   Drama 


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McKIXI,EY    AND    KOOSEVEI.T    KEVIEWIN(4    THE    INAUGURATION    PARADE    IN    1901. 


OUR 
POLITICAL  DRAMA 


conventions        campaigns 
candidatp:s 


By 

JOSEPH  BUCKLIN  BISHOP 

With  Numerous  Illustrations  and 

Reproductions  from 

Caricatures 


New  York 
SCOTT-THAW  CO. 

1904 


^ 


Copyright,  1904 

BY 

SCOTT-THAW  CO. 


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To 
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CONTENTS. 

PART  ONE. 

National  Conventions 


Chapter  I. 
Origin  of  Nominating  Conventions 17 

Chapter   II. 
Origin  of  Nominating  Conventions  (continued) 21 

Chapter   III. 
First  National  Conventions 24 

Chapter  IV. 
First 'National  Conventions  (continued) 31 

Chapter   V. 
The  First  "  Dark  Horse  " 37 

Chapter  VI. 

Clay's  Bitterness  in  Defeat 43 

Chapter  VII. 

Webster's  Long  and  Hopeless  Quest 49 

Chapter  VIII. 
Lincoln's  First  Nomination 58 

Chapter  IX. 
Douglas  a  Victim  of  the  Two-thirds  Rule 68 

Chapter  X. 
Blaine's  Fate  Like  Clay's 76 

Chapter  XL 
The  Third  Term  Convention 82 

Chapter  XII. 
The  Third  Term   Convention  (continued) 88 


PART  TWO. 

Campaigns  and  Caricature. 

Chapter  I. 
Advent  of  Gen.  Jackson 97 

Chapter  II. 
Beginnings  of  Political  Caricature 104 

Chapter  III. 
Genesis  of  American  Political  Caricature Ill 

Chapter  IV. 
Some  Earlier  Cartoons 118 

Chapter  V. 
Cartoons  of  Lincoln's  First  Campaign 125 

Chapter  VI. 
Illustrated  Weekly  Cartoons 141 

PART   THREE. 

Inauguration  Scenes   and  Incidents. 

Chapter  I. 

The  First    Inauguration 161 

Chapter  II. 

John  Adams's  Gloomy  Entrance 174 

Chapter  III. 

The  Truth  About  Jeffersonian  Simplicity 179 

Chapter  IV. 

Inauguration  Clothes  and  Customs 184 

Chapter  V. 

The  Jackson   Invasion 188 

Chapter  VI. 

Unique  Distinction  of   the  Adamses 196 

Chapter  VII. 

"  Tippecanoe  "  and  Other  Inaugurations 203 

Chapter  VIII. 
Lincoln's  First  Inauguration 211 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

McKinley  and  Roosevelt  Reviewing  the  Inauguration  Pa- 
rade in  1901,     ......  Frontispiece 

Philadelphia  Republican  Convention  in  June,  1900,  .  .  27 
The  Wigwam  in  which  Lincoln  was  Nominated  in  1860,      .     61 

The  City  of  Charleston  in  1860, 69 

The  South  Carolina  Institute  in  which  the  Democratic  Con- 
vention of  1860  met,  .......     73 

Jackson  Clearing  the  Kitchen,    .  .         ,          .          .         .97 

Fancied  Security,  or  the  Rats  on  a  Bender,  .         .         .99 

The  Boston  Notion  of  the  World's  Fair — a  New  Cradle  of 

Liberty, 100 

Loco  Foco  Candidates  Travelling,  .....  102 
A  Serviceable  Garment,  or  Reverie  of  a  Bachelor,  .  .  105 
The  Great  Presidential  Sweepstakes,  ....  107 

The  Right  Man  for  the  Right  Place, 108 

Letting  the  Cat  out  of  the  Bag,  .         .         .         .         .         .110 

The  "Mustang"  Team, 112 

An  Heir  to  the  Throne,  or  the  Next  Republican  Candidate,  114 
The  Democratic  Platform,  ......  115 

The  Rail  Candidate, 116 

The  Great  Match  at  Baltimore  between  the  "  Illinois  Ban- 
tam "  and  the  "Old  Cock  "  of  the  White  House,  .         .  119 

11 


12 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

"Young  America,"    ........  120 

The  "  Impending  Crisis,"  or  Caught  in  the  Act,  .          .          .  123 

The  "  Nigger  "  in  the  Woodpile, 126 

The  Alarm, 129 

The  Council, 131 

The  Special  Train,     ........  133 

The  Old  Complaint, 135 

The  "  Secession  Movement,"       ......  137 

Kunning  the  "  Machine,"  .......  138 

The  True  Issue,  or  "That's  What's  the  Matter,"         .          .  140 
"The  Irrepressible   Conflict,"  or   the  Republican   Barge  in 

Danger,      .........  142 

Why  Don't  You  Take  It? 144 

Red-hot  Republicans  on  the  Democratic  Gridiron,        .          .  145 

Love's  Labour  Lost,  ........  147 

Phryne  before  the  Chicago  Tribunal,            ....  149 

"Me  and  Jack," 151 

! 153 

The  Elephant  and  his  Keeper,    .  .         .  .  .          .155 

Progressive  Democracy,      .......  157 

Washington's  Inauguration,        ......  169 

The  Crush  at  the  White  House  after  Jackson's  Inaugura- 
tion,    191 

Mr.  Harrison's  Tippecanoe  Inauguration  Parade,         .          .  201 

The  Approach  to  the  Capitol  during  Polk's  Administration,  205 

Buchanan's  Inauguration,  .......  207 

McKinley  Taking  the  Oath  of  Office  in  1901,        .         .        .  217 


PREFACE 

Isaac  Disraeli,  in  his  '*  Curiosities  of  Literature," 
says:  "How  superficial  is  that  cry  of  some  imperti- 
nent pretended  geniuses  of  these  times  who  affect 
to  exclaim:  'Give  me  no  anecdotes  of  an  author, 
but  give  me  his  works!'  I  have  often  found  the 
anecdotes  more  interesting  than  the  works."  That 
is,  in  large  measure,  the  keynote  of  this  book. 
Several  years  ago  I  published  in  the  "Century 
Magazine"  three  articles,  one  entitled  "Humor 
and  Pathos  of  National  Conventions,"  another, 
"Scenes  and  Incidents  of  Presidential  Inaugura- 
tions," and  a  third,  "Early  Political  Caricature  in 
America."  These  form  the  basis  of  the  present 
volume.  In  the  preparation  of  them,  as  well  as 
in  many  years  of  almost  continuous  reading  of 
American  political  history,  I  accumulated  a  con- 
siderable mass  of  personal  anecdote  and  dramatic 
incident,  only  part  of  which  could  be  used  in  the 
limited  space  of  magazine  publication.  It  had 
been  gathered  from  many  sources — history,  biog- 
raphy, autobiography,  diary,  memoir,  letters  and 
personal  recollections.  Collected  in  a  single  volume, 
it  seemed  to  me  that  it  might  prove  not  uninterest- 
ing reading.  While  all  historical,  and,  I  think,  all 
reasonably  authentic,  it  does  not  pretend  to  either 
the  comprehensiveness  or  the  full  dignity  of  history. 
It  is  merely  the  personal  and  dramatic  side  of  certain 
events  in  our  political  history:  a  compilation,  how- 


PREFACE 

ever  imperfect,  of  what  some  leading  personages 
in  that  history  have  said  or  done  at  critical  or 
supreme  moments  of  their  careers,  what  others 
intimately  associated  with  them  at  the  time  have 
said  about  them,  and  what  contemporary  artists 
have  portrayed  in  caricature. 

I  am  much  indebted  to  Stanwood's  "  History 
of  the  Presidency,"  which  is  an  inexhaustible  mine 
of  exact  information  upon  all  subjects  connected 
with  conventions,  campaigns  and  elections,  and  to 
Col.  A.  K.  McClure's  "Our  Presidents  and  How 
We  Make  Them."  I  have  drawn  freely  from  these 
and  also  from  Thurlow  Weed's  "Autobiography," 
from  Greeley's  "Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life,"  and 
from  the  volumes  of  "The  American  Statesman 
Series,"  published  by  Houghton,  Miflflin  &  Com- 
pany. 

I  wish  also  to  make  grateful  acknowledgment  to 
the  Century  Company  for  permission  to  use  the  illus- 
trations which  accompanied  my  articles  in  their 
magazine,  to  Harper  Brothers  for  the  illustrations 
reproduced  from  "Harper's  Weekly,"  and  to  Messrs. 
Keppler  &  Schwarzmann,  for  the  Gillam  Cartoons 
from  "Puck." 

J.  B.  B. 

New  York,  June,  1904 


PART  ONE 
NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS 


CHAPTER  I. 

ORIGIN     OF     NOMINATING     g0NYF.N^^I,ONfe,  \' 

The  nominating  convention  is  a/ purely  Amer- 
ican invention  and  a  natural  outgrowth  of  popular 
government.  It  came  into  being  with  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  suffrage  through  the  gradual  removal 
of  restriction  upon  it  and  with  the  steadily  increas- 
ing demand  of  the  people  to  have  a  voice  in  the 
selection  of  candidates  for  office.  Before  the 
Revolution,  and  for  many  years  afterwards,  political 
action  was  controlled  by  unofficial  and  voluntary 
associations  or  coteries  of  persons  who  were  drawn 
together  by  kindred  opinions  and  whose  prominence 
in  the  aifairs  of  the  community  made  them  its 
natural  leaders.  These  gatherings  very  early  in 
their  career  took  the  name  of  caucus.  The  origin 
of  this  word  is  obscure  and  much  erudite  specula- 
tion, some  of  it  amusing,  has  been  brought  to  bear 
upon  it.  One  theory  was  that  it  was  derived  from 
the  Algonquin  Indian  word  kaw-kaw-wus— to  con- 
sult, to  speak — but  this  had  few  supporters. 
Another,  which  John  Pickering,  an  early  American 
philologist,  set  forth  gravely  in  his  "  Vocabulary  of 
Americanisms,"  published  in  Boston  in  1816,  made 
it  a  corruption  of  "caulkers."  In  the  early  politics 
of  Boston,  and  particularly  during  the  first  diffi- 
culties between  the  townsmen  and  the  British 
troops,  the  seafaring  men  and  those  employed 
about   the  ship   yards  were  prominent  among   the 

(17) 


18  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

townspeople,  and  there  were  numerous  gatherings, 
say  advocates  of  this  theory,  which  may  have  very 
easily  come  to  be  called  by  way  of  reproach  a  meet- 
ing of  caulkers  after  the  least  influential  class  who 
attended  them,  or  from  the  caulking  house  or  caulk 
house  in  which  they  were  held.  What  was  at  first 
a  derisive  description,  came  to  be  an  appellation, 
and  the  gatherings  of  so-called  caulkers  became  a 
caucus. 

This  theory  is  upset  by  the  fact  that  the 
word  was  in  familiar  use  at  least  seven  years  earlier, 
for  John  Adams  wrote  in  his  Diary,  in  Feb.,  1763: 
"This  day  I  learned  that  the  caucus  club  meets  at 
certain  times  in  the  garret  of  Tom  Dawes,  the 
adjutant  of  the  Boston  regiment.  He  has  a  large 
house  and  he  has  a  movable  partition  in  his  garret 
which  he  takes  down  and  the  whole  club  meets  in 
one  room.  There  they  smoke  tobacco  till  you 
cannot  see  from  one  end  of  the  room  to  the  other. 
There  they  drink  flip,  I  suppose,  and  there  they 
choose  a  moderator  who  puts  questions  to  the 
vote  regularly;  and  selectmen,  assessors,  collectors, 
wardens,  fire  wards  and  representatives  are  regu- 
larly chosen  before  they  are  chosen  in  the  town. 
Uncle  Fairfield,  Story,  Ruddock,  Adams,  Cooper, 
and  a  rudis  indigestaque  moles  of  others  are  members. 
They  send  committees  to  wait  on  the  merchants' 
club,  and  to  propose  in  the  choice  of  men  and 
measures.  Captain  Cunningham  says  they  have 
often  solicited  him  to  go  to  these  caucuses,  they 
have  assured  him  benefit  in  his  business,  etc." 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  19 

Like  testimony  is  given  by  William  Gordon,  the 
English  historian  of  *'The  Rise,  Progress,  and  Estab- 
lishment of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of 
America,"  published  in  1788.  He  writes:  "  More 
than  fifty  years  ago  Mr.  Samuel  Adams'  father  and 
twenty  others,  one  or  two  from  the  north  end  of 
the  town  where  all  the  ship  business  is  carried  on, 
used  to  meet,  make  a  caucus  and  lay  their  plan 
for  introducing  certain  persons  into  places  of  trust 
and  power.  When  they  had  settled  it  they  separ- 
ated, and  each  used  his  particular  influence  within 
his  own  circle.  He  and  his  friends  would  furnish 
themselves  with  ballots,  including  the  names  of 
the  parties  fixed  upon,  which  they  distributed  on 
the  days  of  election.  By  acting  in  concert,  together 
with  a  careful  and  extensive  distribution  of  ballots 
they  generally  carried  their  elections  to  their  own 
mind.  In  like  manner  it  was  that  Mr.  Samuel 
Adams  first  became  a  representative  for  Boston." 

These  caucuses  led  in  all  the  action  by  the  Col- 
onies which  preceded  the  Revolution.  Their  mem- 
bers called  meetings,  prepared  resolutions  and 
disseminated  intelligence.  After  the  Revolution 
they  were  the  natural  leaders  in  the  town  meetings 
and  controlled  their  action  with  an  authority  that 
has  been  surpassed  by  no  modern  political  organ- 
ization under  the  autocratic  command  of  a  boss. 
They  were  able  to  do  this  mainly  because  of  the 
limited  suffrage  which  allowed  only  persons  possess- 
ing a  certain  amount  of  property  to  vote.  This 
made    the   caucus    members    the   recognized    repre- 


20  OUR   POLITICAL   DRAMA 

sentatives  of  the  legal  voters  of  the  community. 
Associated  with  them  were  the  clergy  who  still 
retained  the  intellectual  leadership  which  had  been 
theirs  before  the  Revolution.  They  were  a  class 
apart  and  on  public  occasions  held  themselves  aloof 
from  the  common  people.  Goodrich,  a  Federalist 
writer,  thus  describes  a  town  meeting  in  Connect- 
icut, in  the  period  between  1796  and  1810:  "Apart 
in  a  pew  sat  half  a  dozen  men,  the  magnates  of  the 
town.  In  other  pews  near  by,  sat  still  others,  all 
stanch  respectabilities.  These  were  the  leading 
Federalists,  persons  of  high  character,  wealth  and 
influence.  They  spoke  a  few  words  to  each  other, 
and  then  relapsed  into  a  sort  of  dignified  silence. 
They  did  not  mingle  with  the  mass;  they  might  be 
suspected  of  electioneering.  Nevertheless,  the 
Federalists  had  privately  determined,  a  few  days 
before,  for  whom  they  would  cast  their  votes,  and 
being  a  majority  they  carried  the  day." 


CHAPTER  II. 

ORIGIN    OF    NOMINATING    CONVENTIONS 

(Continued) 
The  caucus  system,  described  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  was  extended  naturally  to  Congress  and 
the  State  Legislatures  after  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution.  In  the  Congressional  caucuses  presi- 
dential nominations  were  made  and  in  Legislative 
caucuses  state  candidates  were  selected.  This 
practice  dated  from  1796.  It  became  general  in 
the  following  year  and  continued  with  slight  mod- 
ifications until  1824.  During  the  closing  eight  or 
ten  years  of  its  existence  there  was  a  steadily  increas- 
ing volume  of  dissatisfaction  with  it,  based  mainly 
upon  its  unpopular  character.  The  politicians  who 
had  control  of  it  had  become  so  arrogant  that  a  new 
and  younger  body  was  gradually  formed  against 
them.  The  latter,  aided  by  the  increase  of  popu- 
lation, the  steady  growth  in  democratic  sentiment, 
and  the  enlargement  of  the  suffrage,  made  constant 
appeals  to  the  people  to  insist  upon  having  a  voice 
in  the  selection  of  candidates.  In  1824,  these^ 
appeals  had  made  such  headway  in  New  York  that 
a  call  for  a  state  nominating  convention  was  issued. 
A  proposal  for  such  a  convention  had  been  made 
in  1813,  and  again  in  1817,  but  had  not  been  approved 
by  the  party  in  which  it  had  originated  and  had 
been  dropped.  Thurlow  Weed,  in  his  "Autobiog- 
raphy,"  gives   this  account  of  the  first  nominating 

(21) 


22  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

convention  ever  called  together:  "It  had  been 
decided  at  an  accidental  meeting  of  [naming  six 
persons  beside  himself]  that  a  state  convention 
consisting  of  as  many  delegates  as  there  were 
representatives  in  the  assembly,  to  be  chosen  by 
voters  opposed  to  Mr.  Crawford  for  President,  and 
in  favor  of  restoring  the  choice  of  presidential 
electors  to  the  people,  should  assemble  at  Utica 
for  the  purpose  of  nominating  candidates  for  gov- 
ernor and  lieutenant-governor.  Thus,  the  policy 
of  nominations,  emanating  directly  from  the  people, 
instead  of  by  legislative  causus,  was  inaugurated. 
The  convention  which  met  at  Utica  in  August, 
1824,  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  political  era. 
The  convention  was  very  fully  attended.  Most 
of  the  delegates  were  men  of  political  character 
and  experience." 

The  new  system  spread  rapidly  to  other  states, 
what  Mr.  Weed  calls  the  "policy  of  nominations 
emanating  directly  from  the  people,"  being  too 
overwhelmingly  popular  to  be  resisted.  The  change 
was  really  a  revolt  against  as  arbitrary  and  as  undem- 
ocratic a  system  of  political  management  as  the 
country  has  ever  known.  The  politicians  who  took 
the  lead  in  bringing  it  about  were,  like  their  species 
in  all  times,  quick  to  detect  the  trend  of  popular 
sentiment  and  to  get  in  step  with  it.  While  pro- 
fessedly yielding  to  the  people's  desires,  they  were 
already  planning  to  get  control  of  the  new  system 
for  their  own  purposes.  In  fact,  they  had  put  it 
into  operation  because  it  best  suited   their    needs 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  23 

at  the  moment.  They  had  no  hope  of  success 
through  the  Legislative  caucus,  and  in  desperation 
they  resorted  to  the  delegate  convention,  feeling 
quite  confident  of  their  ability  to  control  such  a 
body. 

It  is  a  quite  general  delusion  that  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Republic  our  politics  were  free  from  the 
trickery  and  manipulation  which  are  so  greatly 
deplored  as  characterizing  party  management  in 
later  times.  One  has  only  to  read  the  citations 
which  I  have  made  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book, 
in  description  of  caucus  methods,  to  perceive  that 
from  the  outset  the  American  politician  has  been 
constituted  in  much  the  same  way  as  his  latter-day 
prototype.  Those  caucuses,  as  described  by  Adams 
and  Gordon,  were  very  much  such  bodies  as  our 
party  bosses  gather  about  them  and  which  consti- 
tute the  "machines."  Their  methods,  both  of 
selecting  and  of  electing  candidates,  were  much  like 
those  which  prevail  now.  Even  that  inducement 
for  entering  a  caucus — "benefit  in  his  business" — 
is  still  living  and  active  in  our  day. 


CHAPTER  III. 

FIRST    NATIONAL    CONVENTIONS. 

With  the  advent  of  the  state  nominating  con- 
vention began  the  gradual  building  up  of  the  great 
modern  political  machine.  It  was  inevitable  that 
the  adoption  of  the  convention  system  by  the  states 
should  lead  to  its  adoption  by  the  nation,  and  this 
change  began  almost  immediately.  The  Anti- 
Masonic  party,  one  of  those  ephemeral  political 
movements  whose  birth  and  death  occur  in  a  single 
campaign,  first  set  the  example  by  holding  a  national 
convention  in  Philadelphia,  in  September,  1830, 
and  calling  a  second  convention  to  meet  in  Balti- 
more a  year  later.  The  National  Republican 
party,  which  closed  its  career  in  the  same  campaign, 
was  the  first  real  party  to  use  the  new  method, 
nominating  Henry  Clay  unanimously  in  a  con- 
vention at  Baltimore  in  December,  1831,  and  recom- 
mending the  convening  of  a  national  assembly  of 
young  men  at  Washington  in  May  of  the  following 
year.  When  this  body,  afterward  known  as  "Clay's 
Infant-School,"  came  together,  it  also  nominated 
him  unanimously.  General  Jackson,  who  was  then 
a  virtually  unopposed  candidate  for  a  Democratic 
renomination,  with  that  quick  instinct  for  "getting 
close  to  the  people"  which  seldom  failed  him,  saw 
in  the  new  method  great  elements  of  popularity, 
and    hastened    to    attract    them    to    himself.     He 

(24) 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  25 

directed  that  a  convention  be  called  to  nominate 
a  candidate  for  the  Vice-Presidency  on  a  ticket  with 
himself. 

Jackson's  choice  for  the  nomination  was  Van 
Buren,  but  the  latter  was  far  from  being  a  favorite 
with  the  party  and  for  the  purpose  of  overcoming 
opposition  to  him  Jackson  had  decided  to  resort  to 
the  convention  system.  He  had  the  convention 
called  by  instigating  the  Legislature  of  New  Hamp- 
shire to  propose  it  and  the  party  press  to  commend 
the  proposal.  He  then  saw  to  it  that  most  of  the 
delegates  chosen  should  be  amenable  to  advice  from 
himself  as  to  the  proper  course  to  pursue  and  such 
as  were  not  in  that  frame  of  mind  were  informed 
after  the  convention  assembled  that  it  would  be 
well  for  them  to  favor  Van  Buren  "unless  they 
wished  to  quarrel  with  the  general."  As  few  were 
anxious  to  quarrel  with  that  redoubtable  personage, 
he  had  a  very  large  majority  of  the  convention 
ready  to  do  his  bidding. 

For  some  reason  which  is  not  clearly  apparent,  he 
had  the  convention  adopt  the  following  resolution, 
which  it  is  worth  while  to  cite  in  full  because  of  its 
historic  value: 

Resolved,  That  each  State  be  entitled,  in  the 
nomination  to  be  made  of  a  candidate  for  the  vice- 
presidency,  to  a  number  of  votes  equal  to  the  num- 
ber to  which  they  will  be  entitled  in  the  electoral 
colleges,  under  the  new  apportionment,  in  voting 
for  President  and  Vice-President;  and  that  two- 
thirds   of  the   whole   number  of   the    votes   in    the 


^6  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

convention  shall  be  necessary  to  constitute  a 
choice. 

In  the  closing  passage  of  that  resolution  appears 
the  two- thirds  rule  which  has  prevailed  in  all  Demo- 
cratic national  conventions  for  the  seventy  odd 
years  since  Jackson  invented  it.  Why  he  thought 
it  desirable  to  use  it  on  that  occasion,  I  have  never 
seen  stated.  Perhaps  he  was  desirous  of  "showing 
his  power,"  as  some  modern  politicians  have  been, 
or  perhaps  he  desired  to  "rub  it  in"  to  the  members 
of  the  party  who  had  been  so  imprudent  as  to  oppose 
his  wishes.  But  whatever  his  motive,  he  placed 
a  shackle  about  the  neck  of  his  party  in  convention 
assembled  from  which  it  has  been  trying  in  vain 
ever  since  to  rid  itself.  Repeated  efforts  have  been 
made  to  set  it  aside,  but  always  in  vain. 

After  the  rule  had  been  used  to  accomplish  Van 
Buren's  nonaination  for  vice-president  in  1832,  it 
was  used  to  secure  his  nomination  for  president  in 
1836.  It  was  vigorously  attacked  in  convention 
as  unrepublican,  and  a  motion  to  reject  it  was 
carried  by  a  vote  of  231  to  210.  On  the  following 
day,  however,  the  vote  was  reconsidered,  and  the 
rule  again  put  in  force.  Four  years  later  Van 
Buren  was  a  candidate  for  renomination,  but  could 
not  command  two-thirds  of  the  convention.  His 
supporters  moved  to  have  the  rule  set  aside  and  to 
have  a  majority  of  the  convention  suffice  for  a 
nomination.  They  were  defeated  by  a  vote  of  148 
in  favor  of  sustaining  the  rule  and  118  against  it. 
Van  Buren  received  a  majority  of  26  on  the  first 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  29 

ballot,  but  could  not  get  two- thirds.  Four  years 
later  the  rule  was  again  sustained,  after  a  long 
debate,  by  a  vote  of  175  to  78,  and  in  1852  and 
1856  it  was  adopted  in  both  the  Charleston  and 
the  Baltimore  conventions,  when,  as  is  truthfully  re- 
marked in  Stan  wood's  "History  of  the  Presidency," 
it  wrecked  the  party,  leading  to  the  nomination  of 
two  tickets.  This  experience  did  not  avail  to  shake 
the  party's  faith  in  the  rule,  for  it  was  adopted, 
usually  without  debate,  in  all  subsequent  conven- 
tions down  to  the  present  time. 

In  each  presidential  election  year  there  has  been 
much  talk  in  advance  of  the  assembling  of  the 
convention  about  the  two-thirds  rule,  but  in  none 
of  the  conventions  has  there  been  serious  discussion 
of  the  matter.  It  is  usually  adopted  with  the 
regular  rules  of  procedure  in  the  preceding  con- 
vention. In  writing  of  the  vote  to  sustain  the 
rule  in  1844,  Stanwood  says:  "The  northern  dele- 
gates had  it  in  their  power  to  defeat  the  rule,  and 
yet,  being  perfectly  well  aware  that  the  adoption 
of  the  two-thirds  requirement  handicapped  the 
candidate  they  professed  to  support,  they  lent 
themselves  to  the  scheme  of  his  opponents.  The 
conclusion  is  inevitable  that  they  were  willing  that 
he  should  be  sacrificed,  but  that  they  did  not  quite 
venture  to  appear  with  daggers  in  their  own  hands." 

This  theory  is  not  necessary  to  explain  the  atti- 
tude of  the  various  factions  in  the  party  of  to-day. 
One  can  easily  see  why  the  supporters  of  one  can- 
didate  should   uphold    the    two-thirds   rule,   for   it 


30  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

enables  them,  by  simply  controlling  a  third  of  the 
convention,  to  prevent  the  nomination  of  any  one 
whom  they  dislike.  Each  faction,  in  short,  believes 
that  the  rule  is  the  most  effective  club  of  all  to 
swing  over  the  heads  of  a  rival  faction.  That  it  is 
thoroughly  undemocratic  seems  not  to  disturb 
them.  It  is  no  more  so  than  the  unit  rule,  yet  both 
have  become  established  methods  of  procedure  in 
Democratic  conventions,  though  they  have  been 
rejected  by  Republican  conventions  as  contrary 
to  the  fundamental  principle  of  American  institu- 
tions— that  is,  rule  by  the  majority. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

FIRST     NATIONAL     CONVENTIONS 

(Continued) 

Gen.  Jackson's  success  with  the  convention  system 
in  1832  encouraged  him  to  use  it  again  at  the  end 
of  his  second  term  in  order  to  secure  the  nomination 
of  Van  Buren  as  his  successor.  He  began  to  pre- 
pare the  way  for  this  early  in  1835,  writing  to  a 
friend,  who  pubHshed  the  letter,  suggesting  the 
holding  of  a  national  convention  composed  of 
delegates  "fresh  from  the  people,"  who  should  nom- 
inate candidates  for  President  and  Vice-President. 
Then  he  went  to  work  in  his  usual  way  to  have  the 
people  elect  as  delegates  men  whom  he  could  depend 
upon  to  do  his  bidding.  The  convention  met  in 
Baltimore  in  May,  1835,  and  was  a  really  extraor- 
dinary body.  There  were  626  names  on  the  roll 
of  delegates,  representing  22  states  and  two  terri- 
tories. There  were  no  delegates  from  Alabama, 
Illinois,  South  Carolina  or  Tennessee.  Maryland 
had  181,  Virginia  108,  New  Jersey  73  and  Pennsyl- 
vania 60.  Tennessee  being  the  President's  own 
state,  it  was  deemed  imperative  to  have  it  repre- 
sented, and  in  the  absence  of  an  elected  delegation, 
a  citizen  of  the  state  who  happened  to  be  in  Balti- 
more, was  admitted  to  the  convention  and  cast  the 
fifteen  votes  allotted  to  Tennessee  for  Van  Buren. 
In  fact,  so  well  had  Jackson  done  his  work  in  getting 
delegates  "fresh  from  the  people,"  that  Van  Buren 

(31) 


32  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

was  nominated  unanimously.  Long  lists  of  the  office- 
holders present  were  published  in  the  opposition 
press  and  made  an  imposing  exhibit.  The  opposi- 
tion party  held  no  national  convention  in  1835,  but 
put  forward  its  candidate  in  the  old  way.  Four 
years  later,  however,  under  the  name  of  the  Whig 
party,  it  held  its  first  nominating  convention,  and 
the  methods  employed  by  its  political  leaders 
showed  that  they  were  as  eager  and  as  adept  in 
operating  the  new  system  for  their  own  purposes 
as  Gen.  Jackson  had  been. 

This  convention  was  held  in  a  new  Lutheran 
church  in  Harrisburg,  Pa.,  and  it  is  a  safe  assertion 
that  never  before  or  since  has  a  house  of  God  been 
made  the  scene  of  so  much  and  so  adroit  political 
mancEuvering  as  went  on  there  for  the  purpose  of 
preventing  the  nomination  of  Henry  Clay  for  the 
presidency.  The  chief  manipulator  was  Thurlow 
Weed,  who  appeared  there  as  the  friend  of  Governor 
Seward,  and  the  future  member  of  the  powerful 
firm  of  Seward,  Weed,  and  Greeley.  This  firm 
was,  indeed,  the  outcome  of  the  ensuing  campaign. 
Greeley  was  at  the  convention, — '*a  deeply  inter- 
ested observer,"  he  styles  himself, — little  dreaming 
that  the  campaign  which  was  to  follow  would  give 
him  the  opportunity  for  developing  the  qualities 
which  were  to  make  him  the  first  editor  of  his  time, 
and  lead  to  the  foundation  of  a  great  newspaper 
to  be  forever  linked  indissolubly  with  his  name. 
Weed  went  to  the  convention  with  the  determina- 
tion  of   defeating   Clay.     He   says    in   his    "Auto- 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  33 

biography"  that  he  had  had  the  New  York  dele- 
gation instructed  for  Scott  to  keep  it  from  Clay, 
his  real  candidate  being  Harrison.  He  entered  into 
an  agreement  with  friends  of  Webster,  on  the  way 
to  Harrisburg  from  New  York  city,  to  act  together 
for  Clay's  defeat.  Webster  was  in  Europe  at  the 
time,  and  had  sent  word  to  his  friends  declining  to 
be  a  candidate,  primarily  because  of  Weed's  refusal 
to  support  him.  After  detailing  these  facts,  Mr. 
Weed  goes  on  to  say  that,  on  reaching  Harrisburg, 
"we  found  a  decided  plurality  in  favor  of  Mr.  Clay," 
but  that,  "in  the  opinion  of  the  delegates  from 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York,  Mr.  Clay  could  not 
carry  either  of  those  states,  and  without  them  he 
could  not  be  elected."  Mr.  Weed  makes  no  men- 
tion of  the  plan  which  was  arranged  for  preventing 
Clay's  success,  but  he  has  always  been  suspected 
of  having  intimate  knowledge  of  it,  if  he  was  not  its 
author.  It  was  proposed  to  the  convention  by  a 
member  of  the  Massachusetts  delegation,  in  the 
form  of  a  rule  directing  each  delegation,  to  take 
informal  ballots  as  to  candidates  until  a  majority 
should  be  recorded  for  some  one  candidate,  upon 
which  a  report  of  the  result  should  be  made  to  the 
convention,  and  the  vote  of  the  majority  of  each 
delegation  should  be  reported  as  the  vote  of  that 
state.  This  was  the  origin  of  the  "unit  rule," 
which  has  since  been  used  in  Democratic  conven- 
tions in  conjunction  with  the  "two-thirds  rule." 
The  effect  of  this  rule  was  the  defeat  of  Clay  and 
the  nomination  of  Harrison.     Weed  admits  a  bar- 


34  OUR    POLITICAL    DRAMA 

gain  in  favor  of  Harrison  with  the  friends  both  of 
Webster  and  of  Scott,  and  says  the  "final  vote 
was  intentionally  delayed  by  the  friends  of  the 
stronger  candidate  (Harrison)  for  twenty-four 
hours"  in  order  to  placate  the  angry  friends  of 
Clay,  "whose  disappointment  and  vexation  found 
excited  expression." 

Greeley,  in  his  "Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life," 
makes  frank  admission  of  the  plot,  saying  : 
"Governor  Seward,  who  was  in  Albany  (there  were 
no  telegraphs  in  those  days),  and  Mr.  Weed, 
who  was  present,  and  very  influential  in  producing 
the  result,  were  strongly  blamed  by  the  ardent, 
uncalculating  supporters  of  Mr.  Clay,  as  having 
cheated  him  out  of  the  nomination, — I  could  never 
see  with  what  reason.  They  judged  that  he  could 
not  be  chosen,  if  nominated,  while  another  could 
be,  and  acted  accordingly.  If  politics  does  not  med- 
itate the  achievement  of  beneficent  ends  through  the 
choice  and  use  of  the  safest  and  most  effective 
means,  I  wholly  misapprehend  it."  This  some- 
what Jesuitical  view  did  not  strike  Clay  and  his 
friends  as  an  adequate  justification  of  the  methods 
by  which  an  admitted  majority  of  the  convention 
had  been  prevented  from  expressing  its  will.  John 
Tyler  of  Virginia,  one  of  Clay's  most  ardent  friends 
in  the  convention,  was  so  overcome  with  grief  at 
Harrison's  nomination  that  he  shed  tears;  and 
after  several  unavailing  efforts  to  get  some  one  else 
to  take  the  nomination  for  Vice-President,  Tyler  was 
named  for  it,  his  tears  having  convinced  the  conven- 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  35 

tion  that  the  placing  of  so  devoted  a  friend  of  Clay 
on  the  ticket  would  go  far  to  heal  the  wounds  that 
the  methods  of  the  convention  had  caused. 

But  Weed  and  his  associates  were  not  the  only 
intriguers.  Some  of  Scott's  supporters  were  loyal 
to  him  and  made  a  strong  effort  to  have  him  nom- 
inated when  Clay's  defeat  was  assured.  The  Vir- 
ginia delegation  were  for  either  Harrison  or  Scott, 
since  both  were  natives  of  their  state,  and  were 
hesitating  between  the  two.  Col.  A.  K.  McClure, 
in  his  book  on  "Our  Presidents  and  How^  We  Make 
Them,"  gives  this  account  of  the  manner  in  which 
they  were  turned  from  Scott:  "It  was  at  this  stage 
of  the  contest  that  Thaddeus  Stevens,  who  was 
the  leading  delegate  from  Pennsylvania,  controlled 
the  Virginia  delegation  by  a  scheme  that  was  more 
effective  than  creditable.  Scott,  who  was  quite 
too  fond  of  writing  letters,  had  written  a  letter  to 
Francis  Granger,  of  New  York,  in  which  he  evidently 
sought  to  conciliate  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of 
that  State.  It  was  a  private  letter,  but  Granger 
exhibited  it  to  Stevens  and  permitted  Stevens  to  use 
it  in  his  own  way.  As  the  headquarters  of  the 
Virginia  delegation  were  the  centre  of  attraction 
they  were  always  crowded,  and  Stevens  called  there 
along  with  many  others.  Before  leaving  he  dropped 
the  Scott  letter  on  the  floor,  and  it  was  soon  dis- 
covered and  its  contents  made  known  to  the  Vir- 
ginians. That  letter  decided  the  Virginians  to 
support  Harrison  and  to  reject  Scott.  Either 
could  have  been  elected  if  nominated,  as  the  Van 


36  OUR  POLITICAL   DRAMA 

Buren  defeat  of  1840  was  one  of  the  most  sweeping 
political  hurricanes  in  the  history  of  the  country. 
My  authority  for  this  is  Mr.  Stevens  himself." 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    FIRST    ''dark    HORSE" 

The  Democratic  convention  of  1844  is  memorable 
for  several  reasons.  It  was  the  first  convention  to 
develop  a  "dark  horse,"  the  first  to  bring  about 
a  nomination  by  means  of  a  "stampede,"  and  the 
first  to  have  its  proceedings  reported  by  telegraph. 
Van  Buren,  who  had  been  President,  and  who  had 
been  defeated  in  1840  by  Harrison,  was  the  leading 
candidate,  and  had  a  majority  of  twenty-six  in  the 
convention.  An  attempt  to  defeat  the  two-thirds 
rule  failed,  and  from  that  moment  Van  Buren's 
prospects  became  hopeless.  Eight  ballots  were 
taken  without  result,  and  a  great  deal  of  bad  feeling 
was  springing  up  between  the  supporters  of  Van 
Buren  and  his  chief  competitor.  Gen.  Cass.  On 
the  eighth  ballot  forty-four  votes  were  cast  for 
James  K.  Polk,  who  had  been  mentioned  modestly 
up  to  that  time  as  a  possible  nominee  for  Vice- 
President.  His  name  came  before  the  convention 
at  the  moment  when  the  warfare  between  the  rival 
factions  was  at  its  hottest  point.  A  delegate  from 
Pennsylvania  was  the  first  to  break  away  from  in- 
structions to  vote  for  Van  Buren.  He  was  de- 
nounced for  his  action  and  in  defending  it  he  said 
he  had  voted  for  Van  Buren  on  three  ballots,  but 
finding  that  he  was  not  the  choice  of  the  convention 
he  had  voted  for  Mr.  Buchanan.    Finding  that  Mr. 

(37) 


43301^ 


38  OUR   POLITICAL   DRAMA 

Buchanan  could  not  succeed,  he  had  cast  his  vote 
for  James  K.  Polk,  "  the  bosom  friend  of  Gen. 
Jackson,    and   a   pure,    whole-hogged   Democrat." 

A  flood  of  lurid  oratory  was  then  turned  upon 
the  convention.  A  delegate  from  New  York,  dis- 
turbed by  a  passion  which  wrought  sad  confusion 
among  his  metaphors,  charged  that  a  firebrand  had 
been  thrown  into  their  company  by  the  mongrel 
administration  at  Washington.  That  firebrand  was 
the  abominable  Texas  question;  but  that  question, 
like  a  fever,  would  wear  itself  out  or  kill  the  patient. 
Nero  had  fiddled  while  Rome  was  burning,  and 
this  question  had  been  put  in  agitation  for  the 
especial  purpose  of  advancing  the  aspiring  am- 
bition of  a  man  who,  he  doubted  not,  was  now  prob- 
ably fiddling  while  Rome  was  falling.  Challenged 
to  reveal  the  identity  of  the  fiddling  Nero,  he  refused 
to  do  so.  Several  voices  cried  "John  Tyler!"  and 
one  declared :  "  We  have  three  Neros !"  Great  uproar 
followed,  and  when  the  man  who  had  made  the 
original  charge  left  the  hall  he  was  accused  of  '*  throw- 
ing a  firebrand,  and  then  meanly  skulking  from  the 
room."  A  storm  of  hisses  and  groans  followed, 
with  earnest  demands  from  time  to  time  for  the 
name  of  the  fiddling  Nero.  In  the  midst  of  the  din 
a  delegate  from  New  Hampshire  arose,  and  begged 
to  appear  before  the  convention  as  the  "apostle  of 
harmony."  His  state  had  presented  to  the  conven- 
tion the  name  of  its  "favorite  son,"  but  in  the  in- 
terest of  harmony  she  withdrew  it  and  presented 
that  of  James  K.  Polk.    A  delegate  from  Maryland, 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  39 

in  a  voice  trembling  with  emotion,  said  that  "one 
million  people  are  looking  with  anxiety  to  this  con- 
vention, and  if  their  voices  could  be  concentrated 
they  would  demand  a  nomination  irrespective  of 
party  faction."  Therefore,  Maryland  would  cast 
her  vote  for  James  K.  Polk.  The  "stampede"  now 
began  to  move.  An  editor  from  Ohio,  who  was  a 
delegate,  said  that  he  was  ready  to  make  any  sacri- 
fice for  union  and  harmony;  that  he  was  a  friend  of 
Texas  (the  annexation  of  Texas  was  the  "firebrand" 
alluded  to),  and  that,  "should  the  convention  give 
Ohio  a  candidate  in  favor  of  this  object,  he  would 
pledge  that  the  Lone  Star  should  be  blazoned  on 
the  Democratic  standard  in  Ohio,  and  they  would 
lead  on  to  a  certain  victory."  (Tremendous  cheer- 
ing.) 

The  ninth  ballot  was  begun  while  the  convention 
was  at  this  pitch  of  harmony  and  enthusiasm.  State 
after  state  gave  its  solid  vote  to  Polk.  The  New 
York  delegation  retired  for  consultation.  While 
they  were  out  the  ballot  proceeded  till  Virginia  was 
reached.  The  chairman  said  that  Virginia  resigned 
her  first  choice.  Mr.  Van  Buren,  "with  a  bleeding 
heart,"  but  that  her  chief  desire  was  to  "defeat 
that  apostate,  Henry  Clay,  with  a  tail  twenty  years 
long  and  a  pack  of  hungry  expectants  of  twenty 
years'  standing  dragging  after  it;  to  defeat  that  man 
Virginia  yields,  and  places  her  heart  upon  the  altar 
of  her  country  and  her  principles."  This  remarkable 
specimen  of  convention  oratory — which  finds  an 
echo  in  much  of  the  latter-day  contribution  to  that 


40  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMx\ 

portion  of  our  political  literature — hit  the  New 
York  delegation  squarely  in  the  face  as  it  returned 
to  the  hall  with  one  Benjamin  F.  Butler  in  its  front. 
Mr.  Butler  at  once  "responded  with  all  his  heart" 
to  the  noble  words  of  the  gentleman  from  Virginia, 
and,  acting  in  accordance  with  a  private  letter  from 
Mr.  Van  Buren,  took  the  "responsibility  of  with- 
drawing that  honored  name  in  the  best  interests  of 
the  Democratic  party."  He  begged  leave  to  add 
that  it  had  been  his  privilege  recently  to  spend 
"some  happy  days  under  the  same  roof  with  the 
venerable  patriot,  Jackson,  at  the  Hermitage," 
where  he  had  found  him  "with  one  eye  intent  on 
his  final  home,  to  which  he  was  doubtless  rapidly 
gliding,  and  with  the  other  fixed  on  his  country  and 
her  hopes  of  prosperity."  While  occupying  this 
trying  position,  the  venerable  Jackson  had  conveyed 
to  Mr.  Butler  the  fact  that  Van  Buren  was  his  "first 
choice,"  and  that  he  viewed  the  possible  failure  to 
nominate  him  with  "despondency";  still,  Mr.  Butler 
had  received  a  letter  from  him  since  the  convention 
had  been  in  session,  containing  a  postscript  with  this 
pious  message  to  the  delegates :  "  May  God  bless  you, 
my  dear  friends,  and  may  He  guide  all  the  delibera- 
tions of  the  convention,  leading  them  in  union  and 
harmony  to  act  for  the  best  interests  of  my  beloved 
country."  That  completed  the  work.  The  "stam- 
pede" went  on  till  every  vote  was  recorded  for  Polk, 
and  the  first  "dark  horse"  crossed  the  line  a  winner, 
amid  "indescribable  enthusiasm."  That  there  was 
a   carefully   laid   plot   behind    this    "spontaneous" 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  41 

movement  was  quite  generally  suspected.  In  com- 
menting upon  the  outcome,  the  New  York  "Evening 
Post,"  which  supported  Polk's  candidacy  later,  said: 
*'  We  believe  that  if  the  secret  history  of  the  conven- 
tion, from  the  'adoption  of  the  two- thirds  rule 
through  its  various  proceedings,  could  be  written, 
a  large  number  of  the  delegates  would  stand  dis- 
graced in  the  eyes  of  their  constituents." 

For  second  place  on  the  ticket  the  convention,  by 
nearly  a  unanimous  vote,  nominated  Silas  Wright  of 
New  York,  hoping  thereby  to  placate  the  disap- 
pointed supporters  of  Van  Buren.  Mr.  Wright  was 
at  the  time  a  member  of  the  Senate  at  Washington. 
As  I  said  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  this  con- 
vention was  the  first  to  have  its  proceedings  re- 
ported by  telegraph.  Congress  had  only  a  short  time 
before  appropriated  $30,000  to  test  Morse's  invention. 
A  wire  had  been  run  between  Washington  and  Bal- 
timore and  communication  opened  three  days  before 
the  convention  met.  Messages  of  congratulation 
had  been  sent,  the  first  being  "What  hath  God 
wrought!"  But  the  first  practical  use  of  the  inven- 
tion was  to  give  Congress  the  news  of  this  conven- 
tion's doings.  "Every  half  hour,"  says  Schouler  in 
his  "History  of  the  United  States,"  "  the  strange  little 
machine  at  the  east  end  of  the  Capitol  reported  the 
progress  of  meetings  held  forty  miles  away  and 
written  bulletins  posted  up  on  the  wall  of  the  ro- 
tunda gave  quick  intelligence  of  the  news."  Thus 
it  came  about  that  Senator  Wright  was  the  first  man 
to   receive   and   decline   a  nomination   to   ofiice   by 


42  OUR   POLITICAL   DRAMA 

electric  telegraph.  He  was  also  the  first  and  the  last 
in  our  history  to  decline  a  nomination  for  Vice- 
President  by  a  great  political  party  after  the  nomi- 
nation had  been  made.  It  is  extremely  probable 
that  had  there  been  no  electric  telegraph,  he  would 
have  accepted  the  nomination  and  been  elected. 
He  was  indignant  at  the  moment  at  what  he  be- 
lieved to  have  been  a  base  betrayal  of  Van  Buren, 
and  telegraphed  a  positive  refusal  to  accept. 


I 


I 


CHAPTER  VI. 

clay's    bitterness    IX    DEFEAT. 

No  one  can  examine  the  records  of  presidential 
conventions,  with  their  personal  successes  and  fail- 
ures, and  easily  escape  the  conviction  that  there  is 
far  more  of  tragedy  than  comedy  in  our  national 
politics.  There  are  touches  of  humor  here  and  there, 
but  the  dominant  note  is  that  of  pathos.  Behind 
many  a  great  success  there  is  to  be  seen  the  sombre 
shadow  of  bitter  disappointment,  of  wrecked  am- 
bition, of  lifelong  hopes  in  ruins.  As  one  pursues 
through  biography,  autobiography,  and  memoir,  the 
personal  history  of  the  chief  figures  in  the  conven- 
tions that  have  been  held  during  the  seventy  years 
which  have  passed  since  that  method  of  nominating 
presidential  candidates  came  into  use,  he  finds  it 
almost  invariably  ending  in  sadness  and  gloom. 
Scarcely  one  of  those  seeking  the  presidency  with 
most  persistence  has  succeeded  in  getting  possession 
of  that  great  office,  and  few  of  them,  when  final 
failure  has  come,  have  shown  themselves  able  to  bear 
the  blow  with  fortitude. 

Clay's  rage  at  the  outcome  of  the  Harrisburg  con- 
vention in  1839  was  unbounded.  He  had  been 
assuming  in  the  Senate  a  lofty  indifference  to  the 
presidency,  his  famous  saying,  "I  would  rather  be 
right  than  be  President,"  having  been  made  public 
only  a  short  time  before  the  convention  met.    There 

(43) 


44  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

was  nobody  in  the  Senate  at  that  time  of  sufficiently 
nimble  wit  to  think  of  the  biting  retort  which 
Speaker  Reed,  many  years  later,  made  to  a  congress- 
man, who,  for  the  thousandth  time,  was  strutting 
about  in  Clay's  cast-off  garments:  *' Don't  give  your- 
self the  slightest  uneasiness;  you'll  never  be  either." 
But  Clay  had  given  himself  great  uneasiness,  for 
he  was  most  desirous  of  the  nomination.  He  had 
been  a  candidate  eight  years  earlier,  when  he  had 
no  chance  of  election,  and  he  believed  firmly  now 
that  if  nominated  he  could  be  elected.  He  had  pro- 
tested at  the  last  moment  against  the  arrangements 
of  the  convention,  saying  they  had  been  made  with 
the  object  of  excluding  him.  When  the  news  of 
Harrison's  nomination  reached  him  in  Washington, 
he  lost  all  control  of  himself.  Henry  A.  Wise,  who 
was  with  him  at  the  time,  thus  describes  the  scene: 
*'He  had  been  drinking  heavily  in  the  excitement  of 
expectation.  He  rose  from  his  chair  and,  walking 
backward  and  forward  rapidly,  lifting  his  feet  like  a 
horse  string-halted  in  both  legs,  stamped  his  steps 
upon  the  floor,  exclaiming,  'My  friends  are  not 
worth  the  powder  and  shot  it  would  take  to  kill  them. 
It  is  a  diabolical  intrigue,  I  know  now,  which  has  be- 
trayed me.  I  am  the  most  unfortunate  man  in  the 
history  of  parties — always  run  by  my  friends  when 
sure  to  be  defeated,  and  now  betrayed  for  a  nomina- 
tion when  I,  or  any  one,  would  be  sure  of  an  election.'" 
He  had  promised,  in  a  letter  to  the  Kentucky 
delegation  which  was  read  to  the  convention  after 
Harrison's  nomination,  that,  in  case  it  were  thought 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  45 

wise  to  nominate  some  other  person  than  himself, 
to  give  the  nominee  his  best  wishes  and  cordial  sup- 
port. This  pledge  he  kept,  taking  the  stump  for 
Harrison,  but  carefully  freeing  himself  from  all  re- 
sponsibility for  the  latter's  course  in  office.  "I  do 
not  pretend,"  he  said  in  his  first  speech,  "  to  announce 
the  purposes  of  the  new  President,  of  which  I  have  no 
knowledge  other  than  that  accessible  to  every  citizen. 
I  speak  only  for  myself."  After  election,  Harrison 
offered  Clay  a  place  in  his  Cabinet,  but  the  latter 
declined  on  the  ground  that  he  desired  to  be  inde- 
pendent in  his  political  course  and  preferred  to  re- 
main in  the  Senate. 

His  angry  complaint  in  1840  that  he  was  the  most 
unfortunate  of  men  in  that  he  was  always  run  for 
the  presidency  when  he  was  sure  to  be  defeated  and 
betrayed  by  his  friends  when  if  nominated  he  was 
sure  to  be  elected,  was  strangely  confirmed  by  events. 
He  was  nominated  unanimously  by  the  Whig  party 
in  1844,  amid  scenes  of  unbounded  enthusiasm  and 
with  most  confident  anticipations  of  victory.  When 
defeat  came,  he  and  his  party  with  him  were  fairly 
stunned  by  it.  "The  Whigs,"  says  Carl  Schurz  in 
his  "Life  of  Clay,"  "broke  out  in  a  wail  of  agony  all 
over  the  land.  The  descriptions  we  have  of  the  grief 
manifested  are  almost  incredible.  Tears  flowed  in 
abundance  from  the  eyes  of  men  and  women.  In 
the  cities  and  villages  the  business  places  were  almost 
deserted  for  a  day  or  two,  people  gathering  together 
in  groups  to  discuss  in  low  tones  what  had  happened. 
Neither  did  the  victorious  Democrats  indulge  in  the 


46  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

usual  demonstrations  of  triumph.  There  was  a  feel- 
ing as  if  a  great  wrong  had  been  done.  Many  de- 
spaired of  the  Republic,  sincerely  believing  that  the 
experiment  of  popular  government  had  failed  for- 
ever." It  was  inevitable  that  Clay  himself  should 
share  these  gloomy  views.  He  took  his  defeat  very 
much  to  heart,  saying  in  a  letter  to  a  friend:  "The 
late  blow  that  has  fallen  upon  our  country  is  very 
heavy.  I  hope  that  she  may  recover  from  it,  but  I 
confess  that  the  prospect  ahead  is  dark  and  discour- 
aging. I  am^  afraid  that  it  will  be  yet  a  long  time,  if 
ever,  that  the  people  recover  from  the  corrupting 
influences  and  effects  of  Jacksonism.  I  pray  God  to 
give  them  a  happy  deliverance." 

Clay  was  nearly  seventy-one  years  of  age  when  he 
made  his  final  effort  to  obtain  the  presidency.  His 
defeat  in  1844  had  been  followed  by  extraordinary 
manifestations  of  popular  affection.  He  had  been  for 
several  years  burdened  with  a  steadily  accumulating 
mass  of  debt,  including  a  heavy  mortgage  upon  his 
home,  Ashland.  He  was  considering  whether  he 
must  not  part  with  this  cherished  abode  when  he 
was  surprised  with  the  information  that  all  his  debts 
had  been  paid.  When  he  asked  who  had  done  this, 
he  could  only  learn  that  the  benefactors  were  un- 
known, but  they  were  presumably  not  his  enemies. 
He  hesitated  for  some  time  as  to  the  propriety  of 
accepting  the  gifts,  but  when  his  friends  assured  him 
that  since  he  could  not  discover  the  donors  he  could 
not  return  their  money,  and  since  their  money  had 
discharged  obligations  he  could  not  force  the  renewal 


NATIONAL    CONVENTIONS  47 

of  his  debts,  he  decided  to  accept.  During  the  inter- 
vening years  between  his  defeat  and  the  assembling 
of  the  Whig  convention  of  1848,  he  lived  in  retire- 
ment at  Ashland,  receiving  so  constantly  marked 
evidences  of  the  popular  esteem  in  which  he  was  held 
as  to  leave  no  cause  for  doubting  that  he  was  as 
strong  with  his  party  as  he  had  ever  been.  The  first 
shock  to  his  sense  of  security  came  with  the  popular 
demonstrations  which  followed  the  victories  achieved 
by  Gen.  Taylor  in  the  Mexican  War.  When  talk 
of  Taylor  for  the  presidency  began  to  come  out  of 
these  demonstrations,  Clay  was  extremely  annoyed 
and  when  a  Taylor  movement  started  in  Kentucky 
itself,  he  became  anxious  and  even  fretful.  "Why 
is  it,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "after  the  long  period 
of  time  during  which  I  have  had  the  happiness  to 
enjoy  the  friendship  and  confidence  of  that  state, 
what  have  I  done,  it  is  inquired,  to  lose  it.?"  When 
the  convention  assembled  and  a  majority  of  the 
Kentucky  delegation  voted  for  Taylor's  nomination 
and  thus  led  the  way  to  his  selection  on  the  fourth 
ballot.  Clay's  mortification  was  more  acute  than  it 
had  been  eight  years  earlier  when  another  "war 
hero"  had  been  preferred  to  him,  for  on  this  second 
occasion  his  own  state  had  joined  in  his  humiliation, 
or  as  he  considered  it,  his  betrayal  by  his  friends. 
Curiously  enough,  the  political  leader  who  had  done 
most  on  both  occasions  to  defeat  Clay  was  Thurlow 
Weed  of  New  York,  who  was  acting  in  each  instance 
on  his  pet  doctrine  of  availability. 

The  limit  of  Clay's  patience  and  magnanimity 


48  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

had  been  reached.  He  refused  to  support  Taylor, 
saying  he  would  do  nothing  against  him  nor  any- 
thing to  help  him.  **  Ought  I,"  he  said,  "  to  come  out 
as  a  warm  and  partisan  supporter  of  a  candidate  who, 
in  a  reversal  of  our  conditions,  announced  his  purpose 
to  remain  a  candidate,  and  consequently  to  oppose 
me,  so  far  as  it  depended  upon  himself.?  Tell  me, 
what  reciprocity  is  this.?  Magnanimity  is  a  noble 
virtue,  and  I  have  always  endeavored  to  practice  it; 
but  it  has  its  limits,  and  the  line  of  demarcation  be- 
tween it  and  meanness  is  not  always  discernible. 
I  think  my  friends  ought  to  leave  me  quiet  and  un- 
disturbed in  my  retirement.  My  race  is  run.  During 
the  short  time  that  remains  to  me  in  this  world  I 
desire  to  preserve  untarnished  that  character  which 
so  many  have  done  me  the  honor  to  respect  and 
esteem." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

Webster's  long  and  hopeless  quest. 

Mr.  Webster  was  an  eager  candidate  for  a  Presi- 
dential nomination  for  twenty  years.  The  "bee" 
began  to  buzz  in  his  bonnet  immediately  after  his 
famous  speech  in  reply  to  Hayne,  in  January,  1830. 
"Before  the  delivery  of  that  speech,"  says  Henry 
Cabot  Lodge,  in  his  "Life  of  Webster,"  "he  was  a 
distinguished  statesman,  but  the  day  after  he  awoke 
to  a  national  fame  which  made  all  his  other  triumphs 
pale.  The  reply  made  him  a  Presidential  candidate^ 
and  from  that  moment  he  was  never  free  from  the 
gnawing,  haunting  ambition  to  win  the  grand  prize 
of  American  public  life."  He  sought  it  earnestly  in 
1832,  but  his  best  friends  in  his  own  party  told  him 
that  he  had  no  chance  of  winning  it  as  against  Clay, 
and  he  acquiesced  in  their  decision.  The  defeat  of 
Clay  in  the  campaign  of  that  year  convinced  Web- 
ster that  he  was  the  inevitable  candidate  for  1836, 
since  his  most  formidable  rival  had  been  removed 
from  the  field.  The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts 
nominated  him  for  the  office,  but  the  movement 
began  and  ended  there.  No  other  state  took  it  up, 
and  Gen.  Harrison  was  made  the  Whig  candidate. 
Webster's  failure  did  not  in  the  slightest  degree 
diminish  his  zeal  or  chill  his  hope  of  ultimate  suc- 
cess. He  was  as  eager  and  sanguine  a  candidate  as 
ever  in  1839.     Thurlow  Weed  called  upon  him  in 

(49) 


50  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

Washington  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  and  Webster 
said  to  him:  "I  think  I  shall  be  the  Whig  candidate." 
Weed  expressed  doubt,  and  when  Webster  asked 
who  would  be  the  candidate,  replied,  "It  looks  to 
me  like  Harrison."  Whereupon  Webster  exclaimed: 
"You  are  misinformed.  The  party  will  choose  a 
man  with  larger  civic  experience,  who  is  better 
adapted  to  the  place."  To  this  Weed  replied  that 
the  real  question  was,  "Who  will  poll  the  most 
votes.'^"  He  then  asked  Webster  if  he  would  consent 
to  be  the  nominee  for  Vice-President  on  the  ticket 
with  Harrison,  but  "Webster  would  not  listen  to 
this."  The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  again 
brought  Webster  forward,  but  there  was  no  response 
from  any  other  state,  not  even  in  New  England. 
Harrison  was  nominated.  Webster  supported  him 
heartily,  speaking  to  enthusiastic  audiences  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  for  he  was  incomparably  the 
favorite  orator  of  his  party  and  of  his  time,  and 
accepting  Harrison's  offer  of  the  position  of  Secretary 
of  State  after  election.  He  composed  for  Harrison  an 
inaugural  address  which  the  latter  declined  to  use, 
saying  that  the  people  would  know  it  was  not  his, 
but  Webster's,  and  he  thought  it  best  to  give  them 
the  one  which  he  had  prepared  himself.  He  sub- 
mitted this  to  Webster  for  revision.  It  had  a  great 
deal  in  it  about  the  Roman  republic  and  proconsuls, 
and  Webster  spent  nearly  an  entire  day  over  it. 
His  friend  Peter  Harvey  says  in  his  "Reminiscences" 
that  when  Webster  returned  to  his  home,  late  for 
dinner,  his  wife,  struck  with  his  worried  and  tired 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  51 

look,  said  she  hoped  nothing  had  happened,  and 
that  Webster  replied:  "You  would  think  something 
had  happened  if  you  knew  what  I  have  done.  I  have 
killed  seventeen  proconsuls  as  dead  as  smelts,  every- 
one of  them." 

Webster  remained  in  Tyler's  cabinet  as  Secretary 
of  State,  after  Harrison's  death,  till  May,  1843, 
when  he  resigned  and  retired  to  his  farm  at  Marsh- 
field.  He  declared  that  he  was  not  a  candidate  for 
the  Presidential  nomination  of  1844  and  refused  to 
permit  New  Hampshire  to  bring  his  name  forward. 
The  Whigs  were  again  united  and  enthusiastic  for 
Clay.  Tyler's  treachery  to  the  party,  as  it  was 
called,  had  revived  all  its  former  enthusiasm  for 
Clay  and  had  silenced  all  internal  opposition  to  him. 
Greeley  says  in  his  "Recollections"  "John  Tyler  suc- 
ceeded Gen.  Harrison  in  the  Presidency.  He  was 
called  a  Whig  when  elected  Vice-President;  I  think 
he  never  called  himself,  nor  wished  others  to  call 
him  so,  from  the  day  on  which  he  stepped  into  our 
dead  President's  shoes.  At  all  events,  he  contrived 
soon  to  quarrel  with  the  great  body  of  those  whose 
efforts  and  votes  had  borne  him  into  power.  If  he 
cried  at  Harrisburg  over  Mr.  Clay's  defeat,  Mr. 
Clay's  friends  had  abundant  reason  to  cry  ever 
afterward  over  Tyler's  success  there." 

Webster  supported  Clay  as  heartily  as  he  had 
supported  Harrison  four  years  earlier,  and  in  the 
following  winter  Massachusetts  re-elected  him  to 
the  Senate.  He  still  had  his  eye  fixed  unswervingly 
and  confidently  upon  the  Presidency  and  was  con- 


52  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

vinced  a  second  time  that  Clay's  defeat  had  cleared 
the  way  for  his  own  nomination.  Thurlow  Weed 
visited  him  again,  as  he  had  done  eight  years  earlier, 
this  time  at  Marshfield.  Webster  greeted  him  with 
the  inquiry:  "Well,  how  do  things  look  now?  I  sup- 
pose the  question  still  is,  'Who  will  poll  the  most 
votes?'  "  "Yes,"  replied  Weed,  "and  that  man  is 
Gen.  Taylor,  who  will  be  the  next  President."  Web- 
ster broke  out  in  contemptuous  surprise:  "Why, 
Taylor  is  an  illiterate  frontier  colonel,  who  hasn*t 
voted  for  forty  years!"  Weed  insisted  that  Taylor 
was  the  man,  and  again  asked  Webster  to  take  second 
place;  but  Webster  again  refused,  saying:  "I  shall 
remain  in  the  field  as  a  candidate  for  President. 
I  am  not  a  candidate  for  any  other  place." 

The  task  of  supporting  Gen.  Taylor  was  even 
more  diflScult  for  Webster  than  that  of  supporting 
Gen.  Harrison  had  been.  Indeed,  it  was  too  difficult 
for  him  to  master  it  entirely,  for  while  coming 
finally  to  the  advocacy  of  his  election,  on  the 
ground  that  Taylor's  opponents  were  less  worthy 
than  he  was,  he  made  no  concealment  of  his  contempt 
for  the  latter.  In  a  speech  at  Marshfield,  some  time 
after  the  nomination,  he  used  several  phrases  which 
not  only  echoed  and  re-echoed  throughout  the  cam- 
paign, but  have  survived  to  the  present  day.  "That 
sagacious,  wise,  far-seeing  doctrine  of  availability," 
he  said,  with  Thurlow  Weed's  repeated  objection  to 
his  own  candidacy  obviously  in  his  mind,  "lies  at 
the  bottom  of  the  whole  matter.  Gen.  Taylor  has 
been  nominated  fairly,  as  far  as  I  know,  and  I  can 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  53 

not,  therefore,  and  shall  not,  oppose  his  election. 
At  the  same  time  there  is  no  man  who  is  more 
firmly  of  the  opinion  that  such  a  nomination  was 
not  fit  to  be  made."  Naturally,  the  opposing  parties, 
for  there  w^ere  three  candidates  in  that  campaign — 
Taylor,  Van  Buren  and  Cass — made  the  most  of  the 
phrase  "a  nomination  not  fit  to  be  made,"  and 
it  played  a  very  prominent  part  in  the  canvass. 
Webster  wrote  to  a  friend  who  commended  the 
speech  that  there  were  many  among  their  party 
associates  who  would  not  like  it,  adding:  "They 
think  Gen.  Taylor  is  a  miracle  of  a  man,  knowing 
everything  without  having  had  the  opportunity 
of  learning  it,  and  the  fittest  man  in  the  world,  by 
a  sort  of  inspiration,  to  administer  a  constitutional 
government  and  discharge  the  highest  civil  trusts." 
Yet  Taylor  was  elected,  as  Harrison  had  been;  and 
as  Mr.  Weed  points  out  in  his  "Autobiography," 
if  Webster  had  humbled  his  pride  and  had  accepted 
second  place  with  either  of  these  two  men,  he  would 
have  realized  his  cherished  desire  of  being  President, 
for  each  died  before  the  expiration  of  his  term. 

W^ebster's  final  appearance  as  a  candidate  was  in 
1852.  So  great  was  his  infatuation  that  he  did  not 
perceive  that  he  had  far  less  chance  of  success  than 
ever.  He  had  alienated  completely  and  hopelessly 
a  great  body  of  his  northern  supporters  by  his  fa- 
mous 7th  of  March  speech  on  the  Wilmot  Proviso. 
In  their  opinion,  he  had  abandoned  his  advocacy 
of  human  freedom,  and  had  become  not  merely  the 
apologist  for  but  the  defender  of  slavery.     As  Mr. 


54  OUR    POLITICAL   DRAMA 

Lodge  says,  "he  was  wholly  out  of  the  race  and  his 
last  hour  was  near,  but  he  himself  regarded  the  great 
prize  as  at  last  surely  within  his  grasp.  There  was 
absolutely  no  one  who  in  fame,  ability,  public  ser- 
vices, and  experience  could  be  compared  for  one 
moment  with  Mr,  Webster.  The  opportunity  was 
obvious  enough;  it  awakened  all  Mr.  Webster's 
hopes,  and  excited  the  ardor  of  his  friends.  A  formal 
and  recognized  movement,  such  as  had  never  before 
been  made,  was  set  on  foot  to  promote  his  candi- 
dacy." Before  the  time  for  the  convention  to  meet 
had  arrived,  his  friends  became  convinced  that  he 
had  no  chance.  Rufus  Choate,  who  was  to  be  his 
spokesman  and  the  leader  of  the  Webster  delegates 
in  the  convention,  went  to  Washington  the  day 
before  it  was  to  assemble  to  tell  him  the  sad  truth 
in  the  matter,  but  he  found  him  so  strong  with  the 
belief  that  he  would  be  nominated  that  it  seemed 
cruel  to  undeceive  him,  and  he  made  no  attempt  to 
do  so.  On  the  day  the  convention  met  Webster 
wrote  to  a  friend:  "What  may  take  place  to-day, 
in  Baltimore,  I  know  not;  but  of  one  thing,  my  dear 
Sir,  you  may  be  assured,  that  is,  that  I  shall  meet 
the  result,  whatever  it  may  be,  with  a  composed 
mind." 

Choate  made  a  speech  of  great  eloquence  in  his 
behalf  and  everything  that  loyal  friends  could  do 
for  him  was  done,  but  his  nomination  was  hopeless 
from  the  start.  His  highest  vote  was  32  in  a  total 
of  293,  and  after  45  ballots  had  been  taken  Gen. 
Scott  began  to  gain  and  was  nominated  on  the  53rd. 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  55 

Webster's  "composed  mind"  failed  him  when  the 
news  of  the  result  reached  him.  The  faithful  Peter 
Harvey,  who  was  at  the  convention,  which  sat  in 
Baltimore,  went  directly  to  Webster's  house  in 
Washington  after  Scott  had  been  nominated.  Web- 
ster met  him  at  the  door  "with  an  expression  of 
grief,"  but  said  not  a  word  as  to  the  result,  merely 
asking  for  Mr.  Choate.  The  latter  arrived  later, 
and  the  family  sat  down  to  tea.  Still  not  a  word 
was  uttered  by  any  one  about  the  convention. 
Webster  and  Choate  were  closeted  for  an  hour  or  so 
afterward,  and  then  Choate  departed  for  Boston. 
Harvey  met  him  there  a  few  days  later,  when  Choate 
spoke  of  the  interview  as  one  of  the  most  affecting 
he  had  ever  had,  saying  that  the  appearance  of  the 
family  and  everything  about  the  house  seemed  to 
remind  him  of  scenes  he  had  witnessed  in  families 
which  had  lost  a  beloved  member,  "and  that  sad 
meal  which  we  partook  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Webster 
reminded  me  of  the  first  meal  after  the  return  from 
the  grave,  when  the  full  force  of  the  bereavement 
seems  to  be  realized."  Upon  this  funereal  household, 
in  the  very  depths  of  its  gloom,  there  came  strains 
of  jubilant  music,  and  the  shouting  of  an  enthu- 
siastic crowd  of  Washington  Whigs,  who,  in  cele- 
brating Scott's  nomination,  conceived  the  notion 
of  including  Mr.  Webster  in  their  round  of  visits. 
They  gathered  under  his  windows,  and  demanded 
a  speech,  and  would  take  no  refusal,  though  told 
repeatedly  that  he  was  not  well,  and  had  retired 
for  the  night.     He  appeared  finally  with  great  re- 


56  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

luctance,  and  in  a  brief  speech,  which  contained  no 
mention  of  Scott,  said:  '*Of  one  thing,  gentlemen, 
I  can  assure  you:  that  no  one  amongst  you  will 
enjoy  a  sounder  night's  sleep  than  I  shall.  I 
shall  rise  in  the  morning,  God  willing,  to  the  per- 
formance of  my  duty  with  the  lark,  and  though  I 
cannot  equal  him  in  sweetness  of  song,  he  will 
not  greet  the  purpling  east  more  joyous  and 
jocund  than  I." 

He  left  Washington  soon  afterward  for  Marshfield, 
where  a  few  weeks  later  he  died.  Harvey  records 
that  Webster  was  unable  to  reconcile  himself  to  Scott's 
nomination,  saying  only  a  few  days  before  his  death 
that  Scott,  if  elected,  "would  be  a  mere  tool  in  the 
hands  of  the  New  York  Whig  regency,  headed  by 
William  H.  Seward;"  and  adding,  "if  I  had  a  vote, 
I  should  cast  it  for  General  Pierce."  He  wrote  in 
response  to  an  urgent  request  that  he  recommend 
his  party  associates  to  vote  for  Scott:  "This  is  a 
matter  of  principle  and  character  and  reputation 
with  me,  and  I  will  die  before  I  will  do  anything, 
directly  or  indirectly,  from  which  it  is  to  be  inferred 
that  I  acquiesce  in  the  nomination  made  at  Balti- 
more. I  ask  nobody  to  vote  for  me,  I  expect  it  of 
nobody;  I  find  fault  with  nobody  for  supporting  the 
nomination.  But  I  can  not  and  will  not  say  that  I 
acquiesce  in  it."  Three  days  before  his  death,  when 
a  letter  was  read  to  him  from  a  friend  in  Boston, 
expressing  the  hope  that  he  would  not  be  swerved 
from  his  determination  not  to  support  Scott,  he 
said:  "Write  to  him  and  tell  him  to  look  over  toward 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  57 

Charlestown  and  see  if  the  Bunker  Hill    monument 
is  still  standing." 

Goldwin  Smith,  in  his  "Political  History  of  the 
United  States,"  says  of  this  tragic  close  of  a  great  life: 
"His  character,  to  which  the  friends  of  freedom  in 
the  North  had  long  looked  up,  fell  with  a  crash  like 
that  of  a  mighty  tree,  of  a  lofty  pillar,  of  a  rock  that 
for  ages  had  breasted  the  waves.  Some  minds, 
willing  to  be  misled,  he  still  drew  after  him,  but  the 
best  of  his  friends  turned  from  him,  and  his  life 
ended  in  gloom." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Lincoln's  first  nomination. 

Was  Lincoln  an  active  or  a  passive  candidate  for 
the  Presidency?  I  have  read  what  his  various  biog- 
raphers have  said  upon  this  point  with  much  care 
and  it  seems  to  me  to  leave  no  doubt  that  he  sought 
the  nomination  by  all  means  at  his  command  after 
he  returned  from  his  eastern  tour  in  the  early  spring 
of  1860.  -  The  success  of  his  Cooper  Institute  speech, 
together  with  the  enthusiastic  reception  accorded 
him  in  New  England,  clearly  convinced  him  that 
he  was  a  Presidential  possibility.  A  year  earlier 
he  had  no  such  aspirations.  In  April,  1859,  an  Illi- 
nois editor  wrote  to  him  saying  he  was  preparing 
for  a  simultaneous  announcement  of  Lincoln's  name 
for  the  Presidency  by  the  entire  Republican  press  of 
the  state.  To  this  Lincoln  replied :  "  I  must  in  candor 
say  that  I  do  not  think  myself  fit  for  the  Presidency. 
I  certainly  am  flattered  and  gratified  that  some  par- 
tial friends  think  of  me  in  that  connection;  but  I 
really  think  it  best  for  our  cause  that  no  concerted 
effort,  such  as  you  suggest,  shall  be  made."  Eleven 
months  later,  he  took  a  quite  different  view,  for  in 
March,  1860,  he  wrote  to  a  friend  in  Kansas:  "As 
to  your  kind  wishes  for  myself,  allow^  me  to  say  I 
cannot  enter  the  ring  on  the  money  basis,  first, 
because  in  the  main  it  is  wrong;  and,  secondly,  I 
have  not  and  cannot  get  the  money.     I  say  in  the 

(58) 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  59 

main  the  use  of  money  is  wrong;  but  for  certain  ob- 
jects in  a  political  contest  the  use  of  some  is  both  right 
and  indispensable.  With  me,  as  with  yourself,  this 
long  struggle  has  been  one  of  great  pecuniary  loss. 
I  now  distinctly  say  this:  If  you  shall  be  appointed 
a  delegate  to  Chicago,  I  will  furnish  one  hundred 
dollars  to  bear  the  expenses  of  the  trip."  About  a 
month  later  he  wrote  again  to  the  same  friend:  "I 
see  by  the  despatches  that  since  you  wrote  Kansas 
has  appointed  delegates  and  instructed  for  Seward. 
Don't  stir  them  up  to  anger,  but  come  along  to  the 
convention,  and  I  will  do  as  I  said  about  expenses." 
There  is  no  doubt  about  the  authenticity  of  these 
two  letters,  for  both  are  given  in  facsimile  in  Hern- 
don's  "Life  of  Lincoln."  They  show,  as  Goldwin 
Smith  says,  that  "as  a  politician  he  played  the 
game."  Commenting  upon  Lincoln's  attitude  at 
the  time,  Herndon,  who  was  his  law  partner,  says: 
"I  know  the  idea  prevails  that  Lincoln  sat  still  in 
his  chair  in  Springfield,  and  that  one  of  those  un- 
looked-for tides  in  human  affairs  came  along  and 
cast  the  nomination  into  his  lap;  but  any  man  who 
has  had  experience  in  such  things  knows  that  great 
political  prizes  are  not  obtained  in  that  way.  The 
truth  is,  Lincoln  was  as  vigilant  as  he  was  ambitious, 
and  there  is  no  denying  the  fact  that  he  understood 
the  situation  perfectly  from  the  start.  It  was  ap- 
parent to  Lincoln  that  the  Presidential  nomination 
was  within  his  reach.  He  began  gradually  to  lose 
his  interest  in  the  law  and  to  trim  his  political  sails 
at  the  same  time.    His  recent  success  had  stimulated 


60  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

his  self-confidence  to  unwonted  proportions.  He 
wrote  to  influential  party  workers  everywhere." 
Herndon  is  not,  I  am  aware,  an  entirely  safe  au- 
thority, but  there  is  corroborative  evidence  in  sup- 
port of  what  he  says  on  this  point.  When  the  time 
for  the  convention  to  meet  was  approaching,  Lincoln 
wrote  to  a  friend  who  urged  him  to  go  to  Chicago: 
"I  am  a  little  too  much  of  a  candidate  to  go,  and 
not  quite  enough  of  a  candidate  to  stay  away,  but 
upon  the  whole  I  believe  I  will  not  go." 

But  if  Lincoln  did  not  attend  in  person,  he  had  an 
able  and  tireless  body  of  friends  who  did  go  and  to 
whose  masterly  leadership  his  nomination  was  due. 
Yet  after  full  credit  is  given  to  their  efforts,  it  still 
remains  true,  as  Hay  and  Nicolay  say  in  their  "Life," 
that  "Lincoln  was  chosen,  not  by  personal  intrigue 
but  through  political  necessity."  The  convention 
marked  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  such  bodies.  It 
was  the  first  of  the  great  modern  convention  assem- 
blages, which  are  at  once  the  most  impressive  and 
the  most  tumultuous  in  the  world.  It  was  the  first 
to  have  a  special  building  erected  for  its  use,  and 
the  first  to  bring  telegraph  wires  and  instruments 
into  the  building  itself.  It  was  the  first  also  to  admit 
the  general  public  in  large  numbers,  for  The  Wig- 
wam, as  the  convention  building  was  christened,  had 
a  capacity  of  between  5,000  and  10,000,  and  it  was 
crammed  at  every  session.  The  spectators,  out- 
numbering as  they  did  the  convention  itself  five  or 
six  to  one,  played  the  part  then  that  their  successors 
have  played  in  similar  bodies  ever  since.    They  con- 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS 


61 


sisted  almost  entirely  of  ardent  supporters  of  the 
leading  candidates  who  were  there  to  cheer  on 
signal  and  to  keep  on  cheering  as  long  as  throat  and 
lungs  permitted  when  required  to  do  so.  In  fact, 
the  modern  practice  of  cheering  and  counter  cheering, 


THE  WIGWAM,  IN  WHICH   LINCOLN  WAS  NOMINATKD  IN    1860. 

(By  kind  permission  of  the  Century  Co.) 

in  tests  of  noise  and  endurance,  began  at  this  con- 
vention. In  this  first  contest  the  East  was  pitted 
against  the  West  from  the  outset.  In  the  prelimi- 
nary skirmish  for  position,  the  West  came  off  victor. 
The  Seward  contingent  from  New  York,  several 
thousand  strong,  had  gone  to  the  convention  full  of 


62  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

the  confidence  of  coming  victory.  They  had  a 
gorgeously  uniformed  brass  band,  and  they  marched 
about  the  streets  with  military  precision  to  the  ad- 
miration of  the  populace.  They  announced  a  grand 
parade  on  the  morning  of  the  day  upon  which  the 
convention  was  to  meet.  When  the  Lincoln  man- 
agers heard  of  this  they  took  counsel  as  to  what 
should  be  done  to  offset  the  display.  After  much 
debate  it  was  decided  to  fill  The  Wigwam  with  Lin- 
coln shouters,  while  the  Seward  men  were  marching, 
and  to  fill  all  available  space  so  completely  that  the 
latter  could  not  get  in.  This  scheme  was  carried  out 
successfully,  the  Seward  men  aiding  it  greatly  by 
marching  and  countermarching,  under  the  stimu- 
lating influence  of  popular  applause,  till  so  late  a 
moment  that  when  they  reached  The  Wigwam  they 
found  that  very  few  except  members  of  the  New 
York  delegation  could  get  in. 

From  the  outset,  as  Herndon  says,  "the  contest 
narrowed  down  to  a  neck-and-neck  race  between  the 
brilliant  statesman  of  Auburn  and  the  less  preten- 
tious, but  manly  rail-splitter  from  the  Sangamon 
bottoms."  The  platform  was  reported  before  the 
nominations  were  made,  and  after  its  reading, 
which  called  forth  unbounded  enthusiasm,  an  his- 
toric incident  occurred  which  should  be  recorded 
here.  A  veteran  abolitionist,  Mr.  Giddings  of  Ohio, 
moved  that  the  first  resolution  be  amended  by  in- 
serting the  words  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence announcing  the  right  of  all  men  to  "  life,  liberty 
and   the  pursuit  of  happiness."     Several  delegates 


NATIONAL   CONVENTIONS  63 

objectea  to  any  change,  and  one  remarked  that 
there  were  many  truths  in  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, adding:  "Mr.  President,  I  believe  in  the 
Ten  Commandments,  but  I  do  not  want  them  in  a 
political  platform."  The  convention  voted  down 
the  amendment,  whereupon  Mr.  Giddings  left  the 
convention.  Later  George  William  Curtis  of  New 
York  renewed  the  motion,  and  when  fresh  objections 
were  made  he  swept  them  aside  with  a  really  im- 
passioned burst  of  oratory.  "I  have  to  ask  this 
convention,"  he  said,  "whether  they  are  prepared 
to  go  upon  record  before  the  country  as  voting  down 
the  words  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.^  I 
rise  simply  to  ask  gentlemen  to  think  well  before, 
upon  the  free  prairies  of  the  West,  in  the  summer 
of  1860,  they  dare  to  wince  and  quail  before  the 
assertions  of  the  men  in  Philadelphia,  in  1776 — 
before  they  dare  to  shrink  from  repeating  the  words 
that  those  great  men  enunciated."  This  carried  the 
convention  by  storm,  the  amendment  was  adopted, 
and  Mr.  Giddings  returned  overjoyed  to  his  seat 
in  the  convention. 

With  the  naming  of  candidates  the  prolonged 
cheering  contests  began.  The  custom  of  set  speeches 
in  placing  candidates  before  a  convention  had  not 
been  instituted  at  this  time.  Each  spokesman  con- 
fined himself  to  a  simple  statement  that  in  behalf  of 
his  state  he  begged  leave  to  present  the  name  of  its 
candidate.  There  was  only  ordinary  cheering  at 
the  presentation  of  Seward's  and  Lincoln's  names, 
but   when    the   Seward   nomination   was    seconded. 


64  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

pandemonium  of  the  modern  type  broke  loose. 
Murat  Halstead,  who  was  present,  thus  describes 
what  followed:  *'The  effect  was  startling.  Hun- 
dreds of  persons  stopped  their  ears  in  pain.  The 
shouting  was  absolutely  frantic,  shrill  and  wild. 
No  Comanches,  no  panthers,  ever  struck  a  higher 
note,  or  gave  screams  with  more  infernal  intensity. 
Looking  from  the  stage  over  the  vast  amphitheatre, 
nothing  was  to  be  seen  below  but  thousands  of 
hats — a  black  mighty  swarm  of  hats — flying 
with  the  velocity  of  hornets,  over  a  mass  of 
human  heads,  most  of  the  mouths  of  which  were 
open.  Above,  all  around  the  galleries,  hats  and 
handkerchiefs  were  flying  in  the  tempest  together." 
When  Lincoln's  nomination  was  seconded,  the 
counter  demonstration  began.  "The  uproar,"  says 
Mr.  Halsted,  "was  beyond  description.  I  thought 
the  Seward  yell  could  not  be  surpassed,  but  the 
Lincoln  boys  were  clearly  ahead,  and,  feeling  their 
victory,  as  there  was  a  lull  in  the  storm,  took  deep 
breaths  all  round,  and  gave  a  concentrated  shriek 
that  was  positively  awful,  and  accompanied  it  with 
stamping  that  made  every  plank  and  pillar  in  the 
building  quiver."  That  careful  preparation  had 
been  made  for  this  is  shown  by  the  established  fact 
that  the  Seward  men  had  engaged  Tom  Hyer,  a 
prize  fighter,  with  a  gang  of  roughs,  to  marshal  their 
forces  and  to  lead  in  the  cheering  and  yelling,  while 
the  Lincoln  managers  had  hired  a  couple  of  men 
with  stentorian  voices,  had  instructed  them  carefully 
as  to  the  methods  they  were  to  use,  and  had  placed 


NATIONAL   CONVENTIONS  65 

them  m  the  galleries  which  they  had  packed  with 
their  followers. 

The  night  before  the  balloting  began  the  Seward 
men  were  so  confident  of  his  nomination  that  they 
gave  a  champagne  supper  of  unlimited  dimensions, 
and  marched  about  serenading  the  delegations  from 
other  states.  But  while  they  were  drinking  and 
marching  and  cheering,  the  Lincoln  managers  were 
undermining  Seward's  strength  by  persistent  work 
among  the  delegates,  using  chiefly  the  argument  that 
he  could  not  be  elected  if  nominated.  In  this  work 
Pennsylvania  and  Indiana  played  the  most  prominent 
part,  and  one  of  the  most  powerful  personal  influ- 
ences against  Seward  was  his  old  political  partner, 
Horace  Greeley,  who  sat  in  the  convention  as  a  dele- 
gate from  the  newly  made  state  of  Oregon.  Thurlow 
Weed,  another  old  political  partner  of  Greeley  in  the 
once  powerful  firm  of  Seward,  Weed  and  Greeley, 
found  himself  at  last  a  victim  of  his  own  doctrine 
of  "availability"  which  he  had  used  witli  such 
deadly  force  for  so  many  years  against  Clay  and 
Webster.  It  is  said  that  the  Seward  men  promised 
the  Indiana  delegates  all  the  money  they  needed  to 
carry  the  state,  that  they  said  openly  to  opposing 
delegates  from  other  states  they  "would  spend 
oceans  of  money"  if  Seward  were  nominated,  but 
they  could  not  stay  the  tide  that  was  running 
against  him.  Lincoln  was  nominated  on  the  third 
ballot  amid  a  scene  of  indescribable  enthusiasm, 
accompanied  by  an  uproar  so  deafening  that  the 
reports  of  a  cannon  that  was  being  discharged  upon 


66  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

the  roof  of  the  buikling  were  inaudible  within  it. 
The  Seward  men  were  dazed  by  the  unexpected 
defeat  and  fairly  prostrated  with  grief.  Thurlow 
Weed,  whose  success  in  defeating  Clay  just  twenty 
years  earlier  at  Harrisburg,  on  the  ground  of  "avail- 
ability," had  caused  Tyler  to  shed  tears,  confesses 
in  his  "Autobiography"  that  when  Seward's  defeat 
came  he  was  "completely  unnerved  and  even  shed 
tears."  George  William  Curtis,  whose  eloquent  plea 
against  striking  from  the  platform  the  opening 
words  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  taken 
the  convention  by  storm,  carrying  away  all  opposi- 
tion like  chaff,  was  scarcely  less  dejected  than  Weed, 
his  sad  appearance  prompting  his  distinguished  col- 
league and  fellow-worker,  William  M.  Evarts,  to  say, 
as  he  slipped  his  hand  through  his  arm  while  leaving 
the  convention  hall,  "Well,  Curtis,  at  least  we  saved 
the  Declaration  of  Independence."  Seward  was 
more  philosophical  than  his  friends.  He  sat  calmly 
in  his  library  in  Auburn,  awaiting  the  news  from 
the  convention.  His  neighbors  were  assembled  in 
the  village  telegraph  office,  confidently  expecting  his 
nomination.  When  the  news  of  Lincoln's  came 
instead,  not  one  of  them  had  the  heart  to  take  it  to 
him.  His  son,  in  his  "Memoir"  of  his  father,  says  he 
knew  by  their  failure  to  bring  good  news,  that 
"  there  was  no  news  that  friends  would  love  to  bring." 
Later,  when  some  one  mustered  courage  to  visit  him, 
he  was  told  that  no  Republican  could  be  found  in 
Auburn  who  felt  like  writing  the  customary  para- 
graph in  the  evening  paper  announcing  and  approving 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  67 

the  nomination.  He  smiled,  and,  taking  up  a  pen, 
wrote  a  few  lines  commending  the  platform,  and 
saying  that  "no  truer  or  firmer  defenders  of  the  Re- 
publican faith  could  have  been  found  in  the  Union 
than  the  distinguished  and  esteemed  citizens  upon 
whom  the  honors  of  the  nomination  have  fallen." 
In  a  letter  to  Weed,  written  on  the  same  day,  he  said: 
"I  wish  that  I  was  sure  that  your  sense  of  the  dis- 
appointment is  as  light  as  my  own." 

Lincoln  was  in  Springfield  when  the  news  of  his 
nomination  reached  him.  Herndon  says  that  "nat- 
urally enough  he  was  nervous,  restless  and  laboring 
under  more  or  less  suppressed  excitement.  He  had 
been  tossing  ball — a  pastime  frequently  indulged  in 
by  lawyers  of  the  day — and  had  played  a  few  games 
of  billiards  to  keep  down,  as  another  has  expressed 
it,  the  unnatural  excitement  that  threatened  to  pos- 
sess him.  When  the  telegram  containing  the  result 
of  the  last  ballot  came  in,  although  apparently  calm 
and  undisturbed,  a  close  observer  could  have  de- 
tected in  the  compressed  lip  and  serious  countenance 
evidences  of  deep  and  unusual  emotion.  As  the 
balloting  progressed  he  had  gone  to  the  office  of  the 
'Journal'  and  was  sitting  in  a  large  armchair  there 
when  the  news  of  the  nomination  came."  He  read 
the  despatch,  first  in  silence,  and  then  aloud  to  the 
others  present,  and  then  arose,  remarking  that  he 
"would  go  down  the  street  to  tell  a  little  woman 
the  news." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

DOUGLAS     A     VICTIM     OF       THE     TWO-THIRDS       RULE. 

The  convention  of  1860  brought  keen  disappoint- 
ment to  another  persistent  and  eager  candidate  for 
a  Presidential  nomination,  wlio  had  behind  him  as 
large  and  as  devoted  a  body  of  friends  as  had  sup- 
ported Seward.  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  wliose  mem- 
orable debates  with  Lincoln  had  given  him  a  fame 
commensurate  with  that  of  Lincoln,  reached  the 
climax  of  his  political  career  at  the  moment  when  his 
party  had  entered  upon  the  throes  of  dissolution. 
He  succeeded  in  getting  a  nomination  from  only  one 
section  of  his  dismembered  party  and  under  con- 
ditions that  made  it  worthless.  He  had  been  a  can- 
didate for  the  Democratic  nomination  in  1852  and 
had  received  a  plurality  on  the  thirtieth  ballot,  but 
the  two-thirds  rule  barred  his  way  and  Pierce  was 
nominated  in  a  "stampede"  on  the  forty-ninth  bal- 
lot. Again  in  1856  he  was  a  candidate  with  enough 
supporters  to  prevent  any  other  candidate  from 
getting  a  two- thirds  vote,  but  as  soon  ar  Mr.  Bu- 
chanan had  received  a  majority  vote  of  the  conven- 
tion, Douglas,  who  was  second  in  the  poll,  with- 
drew in  his  favor  because  he  had  been  a  persistent 
opponent  of  the  two-thirds  rule  and  felt  bound  to 
bow  to  the  will  of  the  majority. 

When  his  party  came  together  in  convention  at 
Charleston  in  April,   1860,  it  had  fallen  a  helpless 

(6«) 


i'--T;--;.;!f'[,i:fr«a!lI 


on    i-t 


o  f. 


=:  fi 


NATIONAL   CONVENTIONS  71 

prey  to  the  same  "irrepressible  conflict"  that  was 
leading  the  country  into  civil  war.  The  Southern 
members  had  exerted  themselves  to  have  the  con- 
vention called  for  the  first  time  to  meet  in  the  far 
South,  in  the  stronghold  of  extreme  slavery  senti- 
ment and  the  cradle  of  nullification  and  secession. 
They  had  surrounded  the  convention  with  the  most 
powerful  slavery  influences  and  from  the  outset 
there  was  no  hope  of  agreement  between  them  and  the 
Northern  wing  of  the  party.  They  were  irrecon- 
cilably divided  on  the  question  of  the  territories  and 
slavery,  and  every  effort  to  bring  them  together  re- 
sulted only  in  increased  bitterness  and  more  fierce 
antagonism.  The  convention  was  in  session  for  ten 
days,  wrangling  incessantly  over  nearly  every  sub- 
ject that  arose.  Threats  of  bolting  began  to  be  made 
by  the  Southern  delegations  on  the  third  day,  and 
before  the  balloting  began  a  large  proportion  of  them 
had  withdrawn.  The  delegates  who  remained 
adopted  the  two- thirds  rule  and  the  consequence  was 
that  Douglas  could  not  be  nominated  even  by  the 
depleted  convention.  After  57  fruitless  ballots  the 
convention  adjourned  to  meet  at  Baltimore  on 
June  18. 

The  seceding  Southern  delegates  organized  a  con- 
vention of  their  own,  adopted  a  platform,  and  ad- 
journed to  meet  at  Richmond  on  June  11.  When  the 
regular  convention  reassembled  at  Baltimore  and 
it  became  apparent  that  Douglas  would  be  nomi- 
nated, the  few  remaining  Southern  delegates  started 
a  second  session  and  organized  a  second  bolters'  con- 


72  OUR  POLn  ICAL  DRAMA 

vention,  nominating  Breckinridge  and  Lane.  The 
other  bolting  convention  made  the  same  nominations 
after  reassembHng  at  Richmond.  The  regular  con- 
vention, adhering  still  to  the  two-thirds  rule,  finally 
nominated  Douglas.  It  could  not  be  said,  however, 
that  either  he  or  Breckinridge  had  received  a  two- 
thirds  vote  of  a  full  party  convention,  and  conse- 
quently neither  of  them  could  establish  a  claim  to 
regularity. 

There  were  several  manifestations  of  grim  humor 
about  the  convention  which  had  so  much  difficulty 
in  getting  Douglas  into  the  field.  When  it  first  met 
in  Charleston,  S.  C,  the  Northern  delegates  received 
a  disagreeable  intimation  of  the  way  in  which  their 
party  had  come  under  the  domination  of  the  slave 
power.  When  they  tried  to  march  through  the  streets 
at  night  with  a  military  band  at  their  head,  which 
they  had  brought  from  New  York,  they  were  told 
that  they  came  under  the  municipal  law  of  slavery, 
which  forbade  band-playing  after  ten  o'clock  at 
night  in  the  streets,  since  the  drums  might  be  mis- 
taken for  the  dread  alarm-signal  of  a  slave  uprising. 
Later,  when  the  adjourned  convention  reassembled 
in  Baltimore,  the  temporary  flooring  above  the  par- 
quet of  the  theatre  in  which  the  sessions  were  held 
gave  way  in  the  center,  and  the  delegates  found 
themselves  sliding  down  the  shelving  sides  of  a  pit 
into  a  human  maelstrom,  from  which  they  were 
extricated  with  much  difficulty.  This  the  oppo- 
sition press  of  the  time  commented  upon  as  an 
ominous  sign  of  the  forthcoming  dropping  out  of  the 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  75 

bottom  of  the  party.  In  the  same  sessions  at  Balti- 
more, Benjamin  F.  Butler  of  Massachusetts  made  a 
charge  that  forged  tickets  of  admission  had  been 
issued,  two  of  which  he  exhibited,  and  declared: 
"We  are  overwhelmed  with  outsiders.  I  do  not  pro- 
pose to  sit  here  under  this  fraud."  The  redoubtable 
Isaiah  Rynders  asked  Mr.  Butler,  w4th  much  eager- 
ness, where  he  got  the  tickets,  saying  he  was  anxious 
to  get  some  of  his  friends  into  the  convention.  Before 
this  question  was  disposed  of  it  caused  a  violent 
altercation  between  a  Mr.  Randall  and  another 
Pennsylvania  delegate,  in  which  the  "lie  was  ex- 
changed" with  great  force  and  freedom,  and  after 
adjournment  Randall's  son  struck  his  father's  op- 
ponent a  "staggering  blow  between  the  eyes,"  and 
the  latter  responded  by  "getting  one  in  on  young 
Randall's  ear,  leveling  him  to  the  ground." 


CHAPTER  X 

blaine's  fate  like  clay's. 

With  the  exception  of  Clay,  Blaine  was  a  Presi- 
dential candidate  for  a  longer  period  than  any  other 
man  in  our  history.  His  name  was  before  the  con- 
ventions of  1876,  1880,  1884,  1888  and  1892,  a  period 
of  nearly  twenty  years.  He  failed  of  a  nomination 
in  four  conventions,  and  was  nominated  in  one, 
only  to  be  defeated  at  the  polls.  Until  the  last  trial 
he  maintained  his  courage,  and  if  he  felt  bitterness 
toward  his  successful  rivals  he  kept  it  from  the  public 
observation.  He  entered  upon  the  contest  in  1876 
under  extremely  unfortunate  conditions.  He  had 
been  charged  with  using  his  position  as  Speaker  for 
personal  advantage  and  his  conduct  had  been  made 
the  subject  of  an  investigation  by  Congress.  A 
witness  named  Mulligan  had  been  summoned  and 
had  arrived  in  Washington  to  testify,  who  was  said 
to  have  in  his  possession  a  batch  of  incriminating 
letters.  Blaine  called  upon  him,  got  possession  of 
the  letters,  and,  in  a  personal  explanation,  read 
them  with  dramatic  effect  in  the  House.  His  friends 
declared  this  explanation  to  be  a  complete  vindica- 
tion, but  his  critics  pronounced  the  letters  to  be 
proof  of  his  guilt.  The  episode  came  on  the  eve  of 
the  assembling  of  the  convention  at  Cincinnati.  On 
the  Sunday  before  its  sessions  began,  Mr.  Blaine, 
while  apparently  in  the  best  of  health,  was  smitten 

(76) 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  77 

with  what  was  said  at  the  time  to  have  been  a  sun- 
stroke. He  was  entering  a  church  at  Washington, 
when  without  warning  he  sank  upon  the  stone  steps, 
being  saved  from  falling  by  his  wife,  who  caught  him 
in  her  arms.  He  was  taken  to  his  home  unconscious 
and  remained  till  Tuesday  "locked,"  writes  his 
biographer  and  sister-in-law,  Mary  A.  Dodge  (Gail 
Hamilton)  "in  impenetrable  sleep."  All  efforts  to 
arouse  him  were  in  vain  till  the  following  Tuesday, 
when  he  regained  full  consciousness,  and  calling  for 
writing  materials  inscribed  with  his  own  hand  the 
following  telegram  to  Senator  Hale  at  Cincinnati: 
"  I  am  entirely  convalescent,  suffering  from  physical 
weakness.  Impress  upon  my  friends  the  great  depth 
of  gratitude  I  feel  for  the  unparalleled  steadfastness 
with  which  they  have  adhered  to  me  in  my  hour  of 
trial." 

The  convention  began  to  ballot  on  the  second  day, 
and,  according  to  Miss  Dodge,  "Calmest,  coolest, 
most  discerning  of  all,  Mr.  Blaine  sat  in  his  library 
and  from  morning  forecasted  the  result."  Before  the 
decisive  vote  was  fully  counted,  his  message  of  con- 
gratulation was  on  the  way  to  Mr.  Hayes:  "I  offer 
you  my  sincerest  congratulations  on  your  nomina- 
tion. It  will  be  alike  my  highest  pleasure  as  well 
as  my  first  political  duty  to  do  the  utmost  in  my 
power  to  promote  your  election.  The  earliest  mo- 
ments of  my  returning  and  confirmed  health  will  be 
devoted  to  securing  as  large  a  vote  in  Maine  as  she 
would  have  given  for  myself." 

That  he  was  disappointed  and  depressed  by  the 


78  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

result,  even  to  the  point  of  abandoning  hope  of  suc- 
cess in  the  future,  seems  to  be  sufficiently  well  es- 
tablished.    Col.  A.  K.  McClure  says  in  his  recollec- 
tions: "I  saw  Blaine  soon  after  the  Cincinnati  con- 
vention of  1876,  and  talked  with  him  for  an  hour 
alone  at  the  Continental  Hotel,  and  I  well  remember   A 
the  sad  expression  of  his  strong  face  when  he  said  ^ '  I   1 
am  the  Henry  Clay  of  the  Republican  party;  I  can    " 
never  be  President.'    He  was  standing  by  a  window 
looking  out  upon  the  street,  with  his  arm  over  my  ■ 
shoulder,  and  he  spoke  of  his  hopes  and  fears  with  a 
subdued  eloquence   that   was  painfully  impressive. 
He  was  again  defeated  for  nomination  in  1880,  thus 
suffering  two  defeats  when  the  candidates  chosen  by 
the  convention  were  elected.      He  was  nominated  in 
1884  and  defeated,  thus  completing  the  circle  of  the 
sad  history  of  Clay  and  the  ^Yhig  party." 

Miss  Dodge  bears  similar  testimony:  "Never 
afterwards  'did  he  make  one  movement  toward  a 
candidacy;  never  did  any  solicitation  thereto  receive 
the  consent  of  his  own  mind,  and  never  the  consent 
of  his  lips  except  as  it  seemed  to  him  cowardice,  the 
abandonment  of  comrades  and  the  betrayal  of  causes, 
to  refuse  it.  Whatever  assistance  he  subsequently 
lent  to  support  of  his  own  candidacy  was  rendered 
with  an  insurmountable  personal  reluctance,  from  a 
conviction  that  it  would  be  ignoble  not  to  do  it." 

In  1880  the  Blaine  and  Grant  forces  were  not  only 
very  evenly  balanced,  but  were  so  implacably  hostile 
to  each  other  that  neither  candidate  had  a  chance  of 
success  after  the  balloting  had  begun.    The  full  story 


NATIONAL   CONVENTIONS  79 

of  this  convention  will  be  told  in  a  subsequent  chap- 
ter. Blaine's  supporters  secured  the  nomination  of 
Garfield,  and  Blaine  threw  himself  into  the  subse- 
quent campaign  with  great  enthusiasm.  When  his 
nomination  came  on  the  fourth  ballot  in  1884-,  he  is 
said  by  his  intimate  friends  to  have  received  it 
calmly,  but  that  at  no  time  during  the  campaign  was 
he  sanguine  of  election.  One  of  them,  who  visited  him 
at  his  home  in  Augusta,  says  of  him  that  he  was  ner- 
vous and  depressed  most  of  the  time,  that  he  walked 
up  and  down  a  great  deal,  and  that  he  would  fling 
his  hands  above  his  head  and  exclaim:  "Will  this 
rain  of  calumny  never  cease!"  On  the  eve  of  Elec- 
tion Day,  he  said  in  a  speech  at  Boston:  "I  go  to  my 
home  to-morrow,  not  without  a  strong  confidence 
in  the  result  of  the  ballot,  but  with  a  heart  that  shall 
not  in  the  least  degree  be  troubled  by  any  verdict 
that  may  be  returned  by  the  American  people." 

When  the  suspense  which  followed  the  election, 
due  to  uncertainty  about  the  result  in  New  York 
state,  had  ended  in  assurance  of  his  defeat,  Mr. 
Blaine  wrote  to  a  friend:  "I  was  not  sustained  in 
the  canvass  by  many  who  had  personally  a  far 
greater  stake  than  I.  They  are  likely  to  have  leisure 
for  reflection  and  for  cool  calculation  of  the  small 
sums  they  were  asked  in  vain  to  contribute.  If  the 
country  is  lost,  it  will  be  some  satisfaction  to  realize 
that  the  class  which  permitted  it  to  be  sacrificed 
will  feel  the  result  most  keenly.  But  I  fear  you  may 
think  me  ill-natured  if  I  keep  on.  I  really  am  not, 
and  feel  as  placid  as  a  summer's  day.    Personally,  I 


80  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

care  less  than  my  nearest  friends  would  believe,  but 
for  the  cause  and  for  my  friends  I  profoundly  de- 
plore the  result." 

Mr.  Blaine  was  travelling  in  Scotland  when  the 
convention  of  1888  assembled,  and  he  refused  to 
allow  his  friends  to  make  him  a  candidate.  On  re- 
ceipt of  the  news  of  Harrison's  nomination,  he  tele- 
graphed his  "hearty  congratulations,"  predicting 
for  his  campaign  the  "triumphant  enthusiasm"  and 
"victorious  conclusion"  that  followed  his  grand- 
father's nomination  in  1840.  When  Harrison  be- 
came President,  Blaine  accepted  the  portfolio  of 
State  in  his  Cabinet,  resigning  it  and  returning  to  his 
home  in  Maine  three  days  before  the  meeting  of  the 
national  convention  in  1892.  It  was  said  by  his 
critics  that  he  resigned  because  he  could  not  with 
propriety  remain  in  the  Cabinet  and  be  a  candidate 
against  his  chief  before  that  convention.  He  had  in 
the  preceding  February  wTitten  a  letter  announcing 
that  he  was  not  a  candidate.  His  action  in  resign- 
ing was  construed  by  his  friends  as  permission  to  use 
his  name  and  they  did  so,  mustering  for  him  on  the 
only  ballot  taken  182  votes  against  the  535  which  re- 
nominated Harrison.  Mr.  Blaine  was  in  Boston  at  the 
time  and  was  watching  the  proceedings  closely.  "When 
the  vote  on  a  preliminary  point  had  been  taken,"  says 
one  who  was  present,  "forecasting  the  vote  on  the 
nomination,  Mr.  Blaine  saw  that  his  supporters  were 
overpowered,  and  requesting  a  member  of  his  family 
to  receive  further  telegrams,  he  retired  early  and  was 
asleep  at  once  and  soundly."     The  same  authority 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  81 

says  of  the  final  outcome:  "The  result  of  the  ballot- 
ing in  the  convention,  under  the  circumstances,  was 
not  a  surprise  to  Mr.  Blaine.  His  only  regret  was 
that  his  name  had  been  used  at  all;  having  been  used, 
a  larger  vote  would  have  been  flattering,  but  he  re- 
ceived the  announcement  with  no  apparent  emotion 
and  no  outward  sign  beyond  the  sad  smile  which 
spoke  of  his  consciousness  of  misapprehension  and 
misrepresentation.  He  was  in  reality  profoundly 
indifferent." 

Whatever  his  real  emotions,  they  did  not  prompt 
him  to  send  a  word  of  congratulation  to  Harrison, 
as  he  had  done  four  years  earlier,  although  he  did 
send  a  message  of  that  kind  to  the  nominee  for  Vice- 
President.  Like  Clay,  who  refused  to  support  Tay- 
lor at  the  close  of  his  long  quest,  and  like  Webster 
who  refused  to  say  a  word  in  favor  of  Scott  when  his 
life  pursuit  too  was  ended,  Blaine  found  himself  at 
last  unable  to  utter  a  word  of  cheer  for  his  successful 
rival.  All  three  men  were  in  broken  health  at  the 
time,  and  all  soon  afterwards  found  rest  in  the  grave. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE   THIRD   TERM   CONVENTION. 

The  Republican  convention  of  1880  had  the  chief 
aspects  of  a  great  battle.  More  than  three-fourths 
of  its  delegates  were  divided  into  two  nearly  equal 
opposing  forces,  each  compactly  organized,  each  ably 
led,  each  thoroughly  determined  upon  victory,  and 
each  uncompromisingly  hostile  to  the  other.  Be- 
tween them  stood  a  tradition  which  dated  back  to 
the  very  beginning  of  the  Republic  and  which  one  of 
them  was  seeking  to  overthrow  while  the  other  was 
ostensibly  upholding  it.  The  attention  of  the  whole 
country  had  been  aroused  by  a  discussion  of  the 
issue  thus  raised,  that  had  been  in  progress  for  sev- 
eral months,  and  the  convention  came  together  amid 
a  more  intense  and  acute  public  interest  than  had 
been  aroused  by  any  similar  gathering  for  many 
years. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  his  second  term  as  President, 
Gen.  Grant  went  abroad  on  a  tour  of  the  world,  re- 
ceiving the  highest  honors  from  all  the  chief  rulers 
of  the  earth  in  every  country  that  he  visited.  He 
returned  to  the  United  States  in  September,  1879, 
landing  at  San  Francisco.  He  was  received  there 
with  a  great  demonstration  of  popular  admiration, 
and  started  thence  across  the  country  on  what 
proved  to  be  a  veritable  triumphal  march.  Every 
city  in  which  he  stopped  greeted  him  with  tumult- 

(82) 


NATIONAL   CONVENTIONS  83 

uous  enthusiasm,  with  great  crowds,  banquets  and 
receptions.  Nothing  surpassing  this  demonstration 
of  popular  enthusiasm  has  ever  been  witnessed  in 
this  country.  Even  after  he  had  reached  his  home 
in  Galena  it  continued  unabated.  When  he  went  a 
few  weeks  later  to  attend  a  reunion  of  the  Army  of 
the  Cumberland  in  Chicago,  more  than  100,000 
people  poured  into  that  city  from  the  surrounding 
country  to  greet  him.  Again,  when  late  in  the  year 
he  started  on  a  tour  from  Chicago  across  Indiana, 
Ohio  and  Pennsylvania  to  complete  the  circuit  of 
the  world  at  Philadelphia,  his  biographers  record 
that  "it  was  the  same  old  story  in  every  city — in 
Logansport,  in  Indianapolis,  in  Columbus,  in  Cin- 
cinnati— one  continuous  blaze  of  boundless  enthu- 
siasm." It  was  then  generally  recognized  that  he  was 
a  candidate  for  a  third  term.  The  press  of  the  coun- 
try was  absorbed  in  the  discussion  of  the  question, 
and  constant  efforts  were  made  in  the  early  part  of 
1880  to  get  an  expression  from  him  of  his  attitude  in 
the  matter.  The  most  that  he  would  say  was  this: 
*'I  will  neither  accept  nor  decline  an  imaginary 
thing.  I  shall  not  gratify  my  enemies  by  declining 
what  has  not  been  offered  me.  I  am  not  a  candidate 
for  anything,  and  if  the  Chicago  convention  nom- 
inates a  candidate  who  can  be  elected  I  shall  be 
glad.  All  my  life  I  have  made  my  decision  when 
the  time  for  the  decision  has  arrived.  I  shall  not 
depart  from  my  usual  course  of  action."  He 
went  on  a  visit  to  Cuba  and  Mexico  in  March, 
and  from  the  Mexican  border  wrote  to  his  friend^ 


84  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

Washburne:  "In  regard  to  your  suggestion  that 
I  should  authorize  some  one  to  say  that  in  no  event 
would  I  consent  to  ever  becoming  a  candidate 
after  1880,  I  think  any  statement  from  me  would 
be  misconstrued  and  would  only  serve  as  a  handle 
for  my  enemies.  Such  a  statement  might  well 
be  made  after  the  nomination,  if  I  am  nominated 
in  such  a  way  as  to  accept.  It  is  a  matter  of  supreme 
indifference  to  me  whether  I  am  or  not.  There 
are  many  persons  I  should  prefer  to  have  the 
office  than  myself.  I  owe  so  much  to  the  Union 
men  of  the  country  that  if  they  think  my  chances 
are  better  for  election  than  for  other  probable 
candidates  in  case  I  should  decline,  I  cannot  decline 
if  the  nomination  is  tendered  without  seeking 
on  my  part." 

He  came  back  to  the  United  States  in  April, 
landing  at  New  Orleans  and  journeying  north 
through  southern  cities  amid  scenes  identical  with 
those  that  had  marked  his  journey  across  the 
continent  from  San  Francisco  a  few  months  earlier. 
When  he  reached  Chicago  he  was  greeted  with 
an  immense  meeting  at  which  he  was  openly  pro- 
claimed as  a  candidate  for  a  third  term,  the  announce- 
ment being  formally  made  that  he  would  accept 
the  nomination  if  it  came  in  the  right  way.  He 
then  went  to  his  home  in  Galena  and  did  not  leave 
there  again  till  the  Chicago  convention  had  completed 
its  work. 

The  convention  met  in  Chicago  on  June  2. 
Senator    Conkling    was    the    leader    of    the    Grant 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  85 

forces  and  Senator  Hale  was  the  leader  of  those 
of  Blaine.  Both  bodies  of  delegates  were  the 
outcome  of  as  thorough  and  as  systematic  work 
as  had  ever  been  done  in  behalf  of  a  Presidential 
aspirant.  During  Gen.  Grant's  absence,  his  friends 
had  been  laboring  incessantly  for  him,  and  the 
supporters  of  Mr.  Blaine,  thinking  they  had  in 
the  third  term  issue  a  battle-cry  that  would  prove 
irresistible,  had  worked  for  him  with  that  cease- 
less vigor  and  enthusiasm  which  only  men  feel 
for  a  political  idol,  and  Mr.  Blaine  was  the  idol 
of  a  larger  number  of  members  of  his  party  than 
any  man  in  this  country  had  been  since  Henry 
Clay.  In  the  opening  proceedings  of  the  conven- 
tion it  was  made  evident  that  it  was  war  to  the 
finish  between  the  two  forces,  with  no  quarter  either 
given  or  asked.  At  every  session  there  was  an 
immense  throng  of  spectators,  more  than  10,000 
in  number,  composed  mainly  of  partisans  of  the 
two  factions  and  carefully  selected  and  organized. 
From  his  first  utterance  in  the  convention  to  the 
last,  Mr.  Conkling's  manner  was  one  studied 
taunt  to  his  opponents.  Nothing  approaching  it 
in  arrogance  and  insolence  has  been  witnessed  in 
a  political  convention  either  before  or  since.  If 
there  had  been  any  chance  of  a  compromise  of 
one  faction  in  favor  of  the  other,  he  destroyed  it 
utterly  in  the  first  half  hour.  Almost  his  first 
act  was  to  move  a  resolution  binding  the  members 
of  the  convention  to  support  the  nominee,  who- 
ever he  might    be.     In   doing   this  he   took  pains 


86  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

to  intimate  with  unmistakable  plainness  his  belief 
that  the  Blaine  men  would  bolt  in  case  Grant 
was  nominated,  unless  they  were  pledged  in  advance 
not  to  do  so.  This  resolution  was  adopted,  but 
the  debate  upon  it  made  him  the  most  unpopular 
man  in  the  convention  with  the  supporters  of  all 
other  candidates  than  Grant,  and  thus  debarred  the 
latter  from  hope  of  recruits.  His  next  important 
effort  was  to  have  the  unit  rule  enforced  upon 
all  delegations  in  order  that  a  majority  in  each 
should  be  able  to  cast  the  solid  vote  of  the  state 
for  the  candidate  of  their  choice.  Under  this 
rule  Mr.  Conkling  would  have  been  able  to  cast 
the  70  votes  of  New  York  for  Grant,  although 
there  were  only  51  delegates  in  Grant's  favor, 
17  being  for  Blaine  and  two  for  John  Sherman. 
He  would  have  made  similar  gains  for  Grant  in 
several  other  states.  In  this  effort  he  was  no  less 
offensive  than  he  had  been  in  his  previous  one, 
and  he  was  defeated  in  it  chiefly  through  the  agency 
of  Gen.  Garfield,  who,  as  chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Rules,  reported  adversely  on  the  proposition 
and  led  the  debate  in  support  of  his  report  upon 
the  floor  of  the  convention,  closing  it  with  a  brief 
speech,  so  full  of  fire  and  genuine  eloquence  that 
it  not  only  routed  Conkling,  but  so  stirred  the  con- 
vention, literally  as  with  the  sound  of  a  trumpet, 
that  when  the  time  came  to  look  for  a  compromise 
candidate,  the  delegates,  with  the  speech  still  ringing 
in  their  ears,  turned  to  the  man  who  had  made  it  and 
hailed  him  as  their  choice.     "Adopt  the  unit  rule  if 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  87 

you  will,"  Gen.  Garfield  had  said  in  closing,  '*and  I 
will  be  bound  by  it;  adopt  the  individual  rule,  and 
I  will  be  bound  by  that,  for  two  great  reasons: 
first,  because  you  make  it  the  rule;  second,  be- 
cause I  believe  it  to  be  everlastingly  right." 
That  phrase,  "everlastingly  right,"  sounded  the 
doom  of  the  Grant  movement  and  proclaimed  the 
coming  of  the  candidate  to  be,  for  the  conven- 
tion could  not  forget  it  or  the  man  who  had 
uttered    it. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  THIRD  TERM  CONVENTION 

(Continued) 

A  long  chapter  might  be  filled  with  Mr.  Conkling's 
astounding  arrogance.  In  the  first  important  dis- 
cussion when  he  was  seeking  to  have  his  resolution 
binding  the  delegates  adopted,  the  chairman  of 
a  Southern  delegation  began  to  say  something 
in  protest.  Mr.  Conkling  leaped  from  his  seat, 
strode  down  the  aisle  to  where  the  man  was  standing, 
placed  both  hands  on  his  shoulders  and  saying 
*'Sit  down,  sir,  sit  down! "fairly  forced  him  into 
his  seat  amid  hisses  and  jeers  from  all  parts  of 
the  hall.  In  making  his  nomination  speech  for 
Grant,  he  went  out  of  his  way  to  give  mortal  offense 
to  the  Blaine  forces  and  to  all  other  elements  of 
the  convention  that  were  opposing  Grant.  That 
speech  was  said  at  the  time  to  have  been  a  really 
remarkable  effort  of  convention  oratory.  It  was 
undoubtedly  delivered  with  great  dramatic  effect,  and 
it  had  many  striking  phrases,  as  all  Mr.  Conkling's 
speeches  had,  for  he  was  an  accomplished  phrase- 
maker;  but  read  at  the  present  day,  after  nearly 
a  quarter  of  a  century  of  repose,  it  seems  artificial, 
labored,  and,  in  many  parts,  bombastic.  Its  famous 
opening  passage,  set  down  in  cold  type,  surely 
comes  very  near  doggerel :  "  When  asked  whence 
comes  our  candidate,  our  sole  response  shall  be,  he 

(88) 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  89 

hails  from  Appomattox  and  its  famous  apple  tree." 
In  his  written  copy  of  the  speech,  which  was  given 
out  in  advance  to  the  press,  he  had  this  simple 
sentence  at  the  beginning;  "When  asked  whence 
comes  our  candidate,  we  say  from  Appomattox." 
There  is  dignity,  simplicity,  and  dramatic  force 
in  that  sentence,  which  is  certainly  not  to  be  found 
in  the  "improved"  version  which  seems  to  have 
been  an  inspiration  of  the  moment. 

Aimed  straight  at  Mr.  Blaine  and  so  accepted 
by  his  supporters,  were  the  following  passages 
which  came  soon  after  the  opening  of  the  speech: 
"With  him  (Grant)  as  our  leader,  we  shall  have 
no  defensive  campaign,  no  apologies  or  explana- 
tions to  make."  "Without  patronage  or  power, 
without  telegraph  wires  running  from  his  home 
to  the  convention,  without  election  contrivance, 
without  effort  on  his  part,  his  name  is  on  his  country's 
lips."  Turning  toward  those  members  of  the  New 
York  delegation  who  had  refused  to  vote  for  Grant, 
he  said,  in  speaking  of  the  supporters  of  Grant: 
"They  hold  the  rightful  rule  of  the  majority  as 
the  very  essence  of  their  faith,  and  they  mean 
to  uphold  that  faith  against  not  only  the  common 
enemy,  but  against  the  charlatans  and  jayhawkers 
and  guerrillas  — the  men  who  deploy  between 
the  lines  and  forage  now  on  the  one  side  and  then  on 
the  other."  One  of  his  phrases  which  had  quite  a 
long-lived  vogue  was:  "His  (Grant's)  fame  was  born 
not  alone  of  things  written  and  said,  but  of  the 
arduous    greatness    of    things    done."     When    the 


90  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

balloting  began  and  it  was  Mr.  Conkling's  duty 
as  chairman  of  the  New  York  delegation  to  announce 
its  vote,  he  did  so  with  studied  insolence  toward 
the  anti-Grant  members.  His  favorite  formula 
was  "Two  of  the  New  York  delegates,  Mr.  Chair- 
man, are  said  to  be  for  Mr.  Sherman,  17  ior  Mr. 
Blaine.  Fifty-one  are  for  Grant."  He  repeated 
this  with  slight  variations  till  the  chairman  of  the 
West  Virginia  delegation  mimicked  his  manner 
and  method  so  perfectly  that  the  whole  convention 
roared.  After  that  he  did  not  venture  on  further 
repetition,  but  resorted  to  such  sayings  as  that 
a  member  who  was  absent  was  possibly  meditating 
some  new  form  of  "  treachery." 

This  convention  was,  perhaps,  the  most  tumul- 
tuous ever  held.  The  15,000  persons  in  attendance 
upon  its  regular  sessions  united  in  "demon- 
strations" that  were  of  frequent  occurrence,  some- 
times as  often  as  twice  or  three  times  in  a  single 
session.  At  one  of  the  early  evening  sessions 
the  mention  of  Gen.  Grant's  name  started  a  wild 
uproar,  which  lasted  for  thirty  minutes.  The 
whole  vast  assemblage  appeared  to  take  part  in 
it.  In  the  center  of  the  hall,  where  the  New  York 
delegation  sat,  appeared  the  majestic  figure  of  Senator 
Conkling,  standing  upon  a  chair,  and  slowly  waving 
to  and  fro  the  delegation's  banner,  which  was 
floating  from  a  tall  staff,  while  from  all  parts  of 
the  hall  there  came  a  roar  as  steady  and  solid 
and  deep  as  that  of  Niagara.  In  one  part  of  the 
hall   a  great  body  of  people  could  now  and   then 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  91 

be  heard  singing  "Glory,  glory,  hallelujah,"  and 
in  another  part  others  singing  "Marching  through 
Georgia."  Thirty  minutes  by  the  watch  this 
pandemonium  reigned,  and  then  it  died  out  from 
sheer  exhaustion.  Scarcely  had  calm  been  restored 
when  the  mention  of  Blaine's  name  started  a  fresh 
outbreak,  a  great  roar  rising  from  all  parts  of  the 
house  at  once.  Flags,  parasols,  umbrellas,  shawls, 
and  handkerchiefs  were  waving  frantically  in  all 
directions,  and  in  the  height  of  the  din  a  well- 
dressed  woman,  who  was  standing  on  the  platform, 
leaped  upon  the  pedestal  of  a  small  statue  of  Liberty 
in  front  of  her,  and,  leaning  forward  over  its  head, 
waved  a  parasol  wildly  to  and  fro,  at  every  swing 
of  which  the  huge  crowd  cheered.  Then  she 
caught  up  a  flag,  and,  winding  it  about  her  figure, 
called  anew  for  cheers  for  Blaine,  arousing  an 
indescribable  tumult.  In  the  Maine  delegation 
was  to  be  seen  the  figure  of  Senator  Hale,  stand- 
ing on  the  shoulders  of  his  colleagues,  and  holding 
high  in  air  upon  its  staff  the  shield  of  the  State 
of  Maine.  All  the  time  the  steady  roar  of  thousands 
of  throats  continued  without  a  perceptible  break, 
till,  having  been  kept  up  for  thirty-five  minutes, 
five  minutes  longer  than  the  Grant  roar,  it  died 
out  as  suddenly  as  it  had  begun.  Thus  for  more 
than  an  hour  the  convention  had  transformed 
itself  into  a  howling  mob,  for  no  other  purpose 
than  to  show  that  one  candidate  had  as  many; 
friends  present  as  the  other.  Previous  to  these 
outbreaks    there   had    been    a    similar   one,    a   day, 


92  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

earlier,  when  Blaine's  name  was  mentioned,  and 
there  were  still  others  when  the  nominating  speeches 
were  made. 

These  contests  in  sheer  noise  had  no  appreciable 
effect  upon  the  balloting  for  the  two  chief  candi- 
dates; they  did  not  change  a  vote  from  one  to  the 
other  apparently.  Gen.  Grant  led  on  the  first 
ballot  with  304  votes;  Blaine  came  next  with  284, 
Sherman  had  93,  Washburne  31,  and  Edmunds 
30.  The  number  necessary  for  a  choice  was  378. 
For  thirty-six  ballots  the  struggle  was  continued, 
Grant's  highest  number  being  313  on  the  thirty- 
fifth  and  Blaine's  being  the  highest  on  the  first, 
falling  to  257  on  the  thirty-fifth  and  to  42  on  the 
final  ballot.  Grant's  vote  stood  at  306  on  the 
final   ballot   when    Garfield   was   nominated. 

A  graphic  picture  of  Gen.  Grant's  demeanor 
while  receiving  news  of  the  balloting  is  given  in 
Hamlin  Garland's  "Life  of  Grant."  He  made  his 
headquarters  at  the  oflSce  of  his  old  staff  oflScer, 
Rowley,  in  Galena,  where  the  bulletins  were  received. 
When  a  bulletin  came  announcing  the  presentation 
of  his  name  by  Conkling,  and  saying  that  after  the 
Appomattox  passage  the  applause  had  lasted  for 
several  minutes,  the  "general  betrayed  no  excite- 
ment, scarcely  interest.  A  thoughtful  look  was  on 
his  face."  When  a  second  bulletin  was  read  saying 
the  "applause  continues,"  a  third  saying  "all  order 
is  lost;  the  hall  is  one  surging  mass  of  humanity," 
the  general's  friends  assured  him  that  it  was  settled 
and  that  he  would  be  nominated  on  the  first   ballot. 


NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  93 

He  *'  moved  uneasily  in  his  chair  and  his  face  darkened 
a  little."  Then  he  rose  abruptly,  saying  to  his 
son:  "Come,  Buck,  let's  go  home."  When  he 
got  into  the  street  he  walked  some  distance  in 
silence,  then  drew  a  deep  sigh  and  said:  "I  am 
afraid  I  am  going  to  be  nominated."  When  several 
days  later  the  news  of  Garfield's  nomination 
came.  Gen.  Grant  said:  "Garfield  is  a  good  man. 
I  am  glad  of  it.  Good-night,  gentlemen."  To  his 
intimate  friends  later  he  made  this  complaint: 
"My  friends  have  not  been  honest  with  me.  I 
can't  afford  to  be  defeated.  They  should  not 
have  placed  me  in  nomination  unless  they  felt  per- 
fectly sure  of  my  success."  Col.  McClure  says  in  his 
recollections:  "On  the  morning  after  the  con- 
vention adjourned  he  came  to  Chicago,  and  I 
met  him  at  the  Palmer  House,  where  he  had  come 
to  confer  with  his  discomfited  friends.  His  face 
gave  no  sign  of  the  disappointment  he  had  suffered. 
He  met  his  friends  in  even  a  more  genial  way  than 
was  his  custom.  He  expressed  himself  as  entirely 
content  with  the  decision  of  the  convention,  and 
greatly  appreciated  the  support  that  had  been 
given  him.  He  never  looked  better  in  his  life, 
and  while  I  could  not  congratulate  him,  I  could 
truthfully  express  my  gratification  at  seeing  him 
the  picture  of  health  and  comfort." 


PART  TWO 
CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE 


CHAPTER  I. 

ADVENT    OF    GEN.    JACKSON. 

The  modern  Presidential  campaign,  with  its 
organized  uproar,  great  parades,  innumerable  mass- 
meetings,  often  vigorous  exchange  of  vituperation 


JACKSON    CLEARING    THE    KITCHEN 

and  personal  abuse,  and  the  use  of  caricature 
as  a  weapon  of  attack,  dates  from  the  appearance 
of  Gen.  Jackson  in  national  politics.     The  advent 

(97) 


98  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

of  so  distinct  and  so  robust  a  personality  seems  lo 
have  stimulated  a  resort  to  new  methods  of  various 
kinds,  both  for  advocating  his  fortunes  and  for 
opposing  him.  The  use  of  caricature  in  our  politics 
dates  from  his  campaign  for  re-election  in  1832,  as 
I  shall  endeavor  to  show  presently.  Campaigning 
in  our  modern  sense,  previous  to  his  time,  was 
unknown.  The  Presidential  candidates  were  put 
forward  and  their  election  was  advocated  by  their 
friends  and  by  the  press,  but  almost  invariably  with 
decorum  and  seldom  with  manifestations  of  popular 
excitement.  But  Gen.  Jackson  "changed  all  that" 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  He  opened  his  first 
campaign  in  January,  1828,  with  a  grand  flourish, 
the  like  of  which  had  never  been  dreamed  of  in 
previous  contests.  A  celebration  of  the  battle  of 
New  Orleans,  January  8,  1815,  was  arranged 
in  that  city,  and  the  battle's  hero  was  invited  to 
attend  as  the  guest  of  the  State.  Delegations  were 
invited  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  they  were 
present  in  large  numbers.  A  steamer  was  sent 
from  New  Orleans,  with  a  reception  committee,  to 
meet  the  General  at  Natchez  and  escort  him  to  the 
scene.  There  was  a  procession,  a  banquet  and  a 
ball  at  Natchez  when  the  General  appeared  there 
on  another  steamer  which  had  brought  him  from  his 
home.  The  two  steamers  then  started  together 
for  New  Orleans.  As  they  approached  the  city, 
the  steamer  Pocahontas,  upon  which  the  General 
was  borne,  displayed,  says  a  contemporary  chron- 
icler,   "twenty-four    flags    waving    from    her    lofty 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE 


99 


decks."  A  fleet  of  steamers  had  gone  forth  to  nieet 
him,  with  "  two  stupendous  boats,  lashed  together, 
leading  the  van."     "The  whole  fleet  kept  up  a  con- 


FANCIED    SECURITY.OR  THE  RATS  ON  A  BENDER. 


stant  fire  of  artillery,  which  was  answered  from 
several  ships  in  the  harbor  and  from  the  shore. 
Gen.  Jackson  stood  on  the  back  gallery  of  the 
Pocahontas,  his  head  uncovered,  conspicuous  to  the 
whole  multitude,  which  literally  covered  the  steam- 
boats, the  shipping  and  the  surrounding  shores." 

Jackson  landed  on  the  levee  amid  a  great  throng 
of  people,  conspicuous  among  whom  were  many  of 
his  brother  soldiers.  Four  days  of  high  festival  fol- 
lowed, with  enthusiastic  speeches  of  congratulation 


100 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


from  the  visiting  delegations  and  stirring  responses 
from  the  General,  the  echoes  of  which  floated  over 
the  land  and  stirred  it  to  unwonted  excitement. 
The  campaign  which  followed  is  said  to  have  been 
the    most    scurrilous    in    our    history.     Campaign 


"A  BOSTON  NOTION  OF  THE  WORLD  S  FAIR A    NEW    CRADLE   OF    LIBERTY 


papers  made  their  first  appearance,  and  were 
devoted  entirely  to  personal  abuse  of  the  two 
opposing  candidates — Jackson  and  Adams.  One 
of  these  which  supported  Jackson  was  called  "We 
the  People,"  and  the  other  which  supported  Adams 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE       101 

was  named  the  "Anti-Jackson  Expositor."  Nothing 
in  the  public  or  private  h*fe  of'eithfel*  man  fiscaped 
exposure  and  distortion.  Jacks.on  was  denounced 
as  a  bloodthirsty  butcher,  'a  fighter  of  duels;  a, 
murderer  of  Indians,  Englishmen  and  everybody 
else  who  got  in  his  path.  Handbills  were  put  forth 
headed  with  a  cofBn-lid  bearing  an  inscription  of 
each  victim's  death.  Peculiar  circumstances  of  his 
marriage,  long  forgotten,  were  recalled  and  set  forth 
with  gross  exaggeration,  and  so  large  became  the 
volume  of  slander  and  accusation  that  a  special 
committee  was  appointed  to  consider  the  various 
charges  and  disprove  them,  which  task  it  executed 
at  great  length.  Adams  was  accused  of  "bargain 
and  corruption,'*  because  of  his  alliance  with  Clay, 
of  Federalism,  Freemasonry  and  Unitarianism,  of 
haughtiness,  stinginess,  selfishness,  and  extravagant 
expenditure.  One  charge  which  caused  great  com- 
motion was  that  he  had  used  the  public  money  to 
buy  a  billiard  table  which  he  had  dared  to  set  up  in 
the  White  House.  This  was  accompanied  with 
another  charge  that  he  had  refurnished  with  appall- 
ing extravagance  the  East  Room  of  the  White  House 
in  which  his  excellent  mother  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  hanging  the  family  washing  to  dry. 

These  charges  are  not  without  contemporaneous 
human  interest,  for  they  find  echo  occasionally  in 
the  debates  of  Congress  even  in  our  day.  So  also  do 
other  charges  made  by  the  excited  partisans  on  either 
side  in  1828.  The  Jacksonian  organs  declared  that 
if  Adams  were  re-elected,  "the  next  Congress  will 


102 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


be  the  last  that  will  ever  sit  in  the  United  States," 
and  elafimed.thvxt  :";£  Gen.  Jackson  be  not  elected, 
the. Union. wilL be  dissolved."     A  su^^estion  of  later 


Co:nu.'a.t.tX-irt-/tar/  fimtlle 


\iapj7en»  I'm  *?'V>/v  /^"  /a^t 


b 


LOCO  TOCO    CANDIDATES    TRAVELLINO. 

QN  THE  CANAL  SYSIEIS. 

campaign  methods  was  afforded  in  the  use  made  of 
Jackson's  pet  name  "Old  Hickory."  His  support- 
ers organized  clubs  of  young  men  w^ho  paraded  with 
transparencies  and  planted  hickory  poles,  dancing 
around  them  and  shouting  "Jackson  forever." 
The  Adams  followers  would  attack  these  performers 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE        103 

and  seek  to  tear  up  the  poles  and  bear  them  away  in 
triumph,  with  the  result  of  frequent  fights  and  riots. 
With  Gen.  Jackson's  campaign  for  re-election 
the  modern  Presidential  contest  may  be  said  to  have 
been  fairly  introduced.  He  had  then  made  a  record 
in  office  that  could  be  attacked  and  had  conducted 
all  his  chief  acts  as  President  with  such  an  amount 
of  disturbance  that  the  people  were  more  interested 
in  him  as  a  personality  than  they  were  in  any  one 
else  in  the  nation.  He  had  entered  the  Presidency 
as  the  savior  of  his  country,  a  military  hero  of 
indomitable  valor.  His  subsequent  fight  against  the 
United  States  Bank,  his  vociferous  and  uncere- 
monious methods  of  conducting  controversies  with 
political  opponents,  the  subservient  conduct  of  his 
famous  "kitchen  cabinet,"  and  its  dissolution  when 
\'an  Buren  withdrew  from  it,  had  combined  during 
his  first  term  to  enhance  greatly  his  attractiveness 
as  a  popular  idol.  He  appeared  before  the  people 
as  their  only  champion  against  the  oppressive 
designs  of  a  huge  money  monopoly  in  which  the 
whole  world  was  joined.  He  was  the  "  People's 
Friend"  in  all  crises;  the  giant  who,  single-handed, 
was  fighting  their  battles  against  enemies  from  all 
quarters.  Every  conspicuous  act  of  his  public  life 
was  performed  amid  uproar  and  turmoil.  Even 
when  his  "kitchen  cabinet"  was  dissolved,  there  was 
so  much  dramatic  disturbance  that  one  of  the  polit- 
ical caricatures  of  the  time  pictures  him,  armed  with 
a  churn-dasher,  clearing  the  kitchen  of  all  opponents 
as  with  the  very  besom  of  destruction. 


CHAPTER  II. 

BEGINNINGS    OF    POLITICAL    CARICATURE. 

In  waging  their  war  against  so  picturesque  a  per- 
sonage as  Gen.  Jackson  the  opposition  felt  the  need 
of  a  new  and  more  graphic  weapon  than  any  pre- 
viously used,  and  they  turned  to  caricature.  The 
talent  which  they  called  to  their  aid  was  crude  in 
ideas  and  still  more  crude  in  execution,  but  a  great 
mass  of  caricature,  in  the  form  of  large  sheets  to  be 
displayed  in  shop  windows  and  posted  on  walls  and 
fences,  was  put  forth.  "The  favorite  idea  of  the 
caricaturists,"  says  one  of  Jackson's  biographers, 
*'was  to  depict  Mr.  Van  Buren  as  an  infant  in  the 
arms  of  Gen.  Jackson,  receiving  sustenance  from  a 
spoon  in  the  hand  of  the  General."  Another, 
which  was  very  popular,  represented  Jackson  receiv- 
ing a  crown  from  Van  Buren  and  a  sceptre  from 
Satan.  Another  showed  the  President  raving  with 
obvious  fury  at  a  delegation.  Another  represented 
Jackson  and  a  group  of  his  warmest  official  support- 
ers, dressed  as  burglars,  aiming  a  huge  battering 
ram  at  the  United  States  Bank's  barred  front  door. 

The  Jackson  campaigners  did  not  endeavor  to 
meet  caricature  with  caricature,  but  went  their  way 
"stirring  the  popular  heart."  They  did  an  enor- 
mous business  in  transparencies  and  hickory  poles. 
A  Frenchman  who  was  traveling  in  the  country  at 
the  time  saw  so  many  Jackson  processions  that  he 

(104) 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE       105 

thought  they  were  one  of  the  institutions  of  the 
country,  and  wrote  to  his  friends  at  home  this 
graphic  and  valuable  contemporary  record  of  their 
appearance    and    character:     "Besides    the    camo- 


A  SERVICEABLE    GARWENT. 


meetings,  the  political  processions  are  the  only 
things  in  this  country  which  bear  any  resemblance 
to  festivals.  The  party  dinners,  with  their  speeches 
and  deluge  of  toasts,  are  frigid,  if  not  repulsive; 
and  I  have  never  seen  a  more  miserable  affair  than 


106  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

the  dinner  given  by  the  Opposition;  that  is  to  say, 
by  the  middle  class,  at  Powelton,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Philadelphia.  But  I  stopped  involuntarily 
at  the  sight  of  the  gigantic  hickory  poles  which 
made  their  solemn  entry  on  eight  wheels,  for  the 
purpose  of  being  planted  by  the  democracy  on  the 
eve  of  the  election.  I  remember  one  of  these  poles, 
with  its  top  still  crowned  with  green  foliage,  which 
came  on  to  the  sounds  of  fifes  and  drums,  and  was 
preceded  by  ranks  of  Democrats,  bearing  no  other 
badge  than  a  twig  of  the  sacred  tree  in  their  hats. 
It  was  drawn  by  eight  horses,  decorated  with  rib- 
bons and  mottoes.  Astride  on  the  tree  itself  were  a 
dozen  Jackson  men  of  the  first  water,  waving  flags 
with  an  air  of  anticipated  triumph,  and  shouting 
'Hurrah  for  Jackson!'  But  this  entry  of  the 
hickory  was  but  a  by-matter  compared  with  the 
procession  I  witnessed  in  New  York.  It  was  nearly 
a  mile  long.  The  Democrats  marched  in  good 
order,  to  the  glare  of  torches;  the  banners  were 
more  numerous  than  I  had  ever  seen  them  in  any 
religious  festival;  all  were  in  transparency,  on 
account  of  the  darkness.  On  some  were  inscribed 
the  names  of  the  Democratic  societies  or  sections: 
Democratic  young  men  of  the  ninth  or  eleventh 
wards;  others  bore  imprecations  against  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States;  Nick  Biddle  and  Old  Nick  here 
figured  largely.  Then  came  portraits  of  Gen. 
Jackson  afoot  and  on  horseback;  there  was  one  in 
the  uniform  of  a  general,  and  another  in  the  person 
of  the  Tennessee  farmer,  with  the  famous  hickory 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE       107 

cane  in  his  hand.  Those  of  Washington  and  Jeff- 
erson, surrounded  with  Democratic  mottoes,  were 
mingled  with  emblems  in  all  tastes  and  of  all  colors. 
Among  these  figured  an  eagle,  not  a  painting,  but  a 
real,  live  eagle,  tied  by  the  legs,  surrounded  by  a 
wreath  of  leaves,  and  hoisted  upon  a  pole,  after  the 
manner  of  the  Roman  standards.  The  imperial 
bird  was  carried  by  a  stout  sailor,  more  pleased  than 
ever  was  a  sergeant  permitted  to  hold  one  of  the 
strings  of  the  canopy  in  a  Catholic  ceremony. 
From  further  than  the  eye  could  reach,  came  march- 
ing on  the  Democrats.  I  was  struck  with  the 
resemblance  of  their  air  to  the  train  that  escorts 
the  viaticum  in  Mexico  and  Puebla.     The  American 


•■  ■*•  -— *■  «»jf^\.  ftjCrtP*]^*    _^ 


_^  'ABoarroi^  c£ss  pool-    '\^^_^ _;v  ,!.uii>  ijt:»*<»ai»^-   ^  ^■'^"''j> 


THE  GREAT  PRESIDENTIAL  SWEEPSTAKES 


standard-bearers    were    as    grave    as    the    Mexican 
Indians  who  bore  the  sacred  tapers.     The  Demo- 


108 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


cratic  procession,  also,  like  the  Catholic  procession, 
had  its  halting-places;  it  stopped  before  the  houses 
of  the  Jackson  men  to  fill  the  air  with  cheers,  and 


Z.*eyo/  ^et  mc  aOkir^/ 


THE   RIGHT  MAN   FOR   THE   RIGHT  PLACE. 

halted  at  the  doors  of  the  leaders  of  the  opposition 
to  give  three,  six,  or  nine  groans." 

It  has  becK  said  of  the  campaign  of  1840,  with 
"Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too,"  that  it  was  the  first 
in  which  the  masses  of  the  people  took  intense 
interest.  In  a  sense  this  is  true,  but  at  the  same 
time,  the  campaign  of  1840  was  the  natural  devel- 
opment of  the  methods  first  put  in  use  under  Jack- 
son's leadership.  Gen.  Harrison  had  some  of  the 
drawing  qualities  as  a  candidate  that  Jackson  had 
possessed.     He  was  a  military  hero  as  Jackson  was, 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE      109 

and  he  combined  with  that  attractive  quality  a  sim- 
pHcity  of  life  and  character  which  greatly  endeared 
him  to  the  people.  In  attempting  to  belittle  him 
in  the  public  estimation,  the  Democrats  unwittingly 
supplied  the  material  for  making  his  campaign  at 
once  the  noisiest  and  the  best-natured  that  the 
country  has  ever  known.  They  declared  that  the 
General  lived  in  a  log  cabin  and  drank  hard  cider. 
Harrison's  supporters  at  once  took  this  up  as  their 
campaign  battle-cry.  From  the  moment  they  did 
this  and  put  it  into  effect,  all  talk  of  principles  and 
issues  departed  from  the  contest.  The  whole  popu- 
lation gave  itself  up  to  parades,  mass-meetings  and 
song  singing.  Huge  Harrison  processions,  with  log 
cabins,  cider-barrels  and  coon-skin  caps  on  poles, 
fairly  covered  the  land.  In  some  instances  they 
stretched  from  one  State  into  another,  all  marching 
jubilantly  with  their  grotesque  emblems  and  singing 
unceasingly : 

What  has  caused  this  great  commotion- 
mo  tion-motion-motion, 
Our  country  through? 
It  is  the  ball  a-rolling  on 
For  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too. 
And  with  them  we  will  beat  little  Van. 
Van,  Van,  is  a  used-up  man. 

The  crowds  that  gathered  were  simply  stupendous 
— would  be  regarded  as  phenomenal  even  in  our  day. 
There  was  a  Whig  carnival  at  Bunker  Hill  at  which 
75,000  were  said  to  be  present,  and  one  at  Dayton, 
Ohio,  at  which  Gen.  Harrison  appeared,  which  was 


110 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


said  to  comprise  at  least  100,000.  Thurlow  Weed 
says  the  most  memorable  gathering  of  the  campaign 
was  held  at  Syracuse  to  which  people  came  by 
hundreds  and  thousands,  on  foot,  in  carriages,  on 
canal  boats  from  all  points  along  the  canal,  many  of 
them  with  bands  of  music,  and  all  with  glee  clubs, 
playing  and  singing  "Tippecanoe  and  Tyler  too," 


LETTING  THE  CAT   OUT   OFTHE  BAG'.! 


•fc^A/WA**«> 


and  other  similar  refrains.  "They  began  to  arrive 
at  sunrise  and  continued  arriving  till  2  P.  M.  It 
was  altogether  the  most  exciting  scene  I  ever  wit- 
nessed." Of  the  campaign  in  general,  Mr.  Weed 
says:  "Log  cabins,  emblematic  of  the  candidate's 
rustic  origin  and  habits,  were  erected  in  the  prin- 
cipal cities  and  villages,  in  all  of  which  enthusiastic 
meetings  were  held. 


CHAPTER  III. 

GENESIS    OF   AMERICAN    POLITICAL    CARICATURE. 

Few  of  the  Jackson  caricatures  are  to  be  found 
now.  They  were  used  at  frequent  intervals,  mainly 
in  New  York  City,  in  lithograph  sheets,  to  be  nailed 
upon  walls  or  passed  from  hand  to  hand.  They 
were  crude  in  drawing,  and  sometimes  coarse  to  the 
point  of  indecency.  They  bore  evidence  that  their 
designers  had  gone  abroad  for  inspiration,  taking 
their  ideas  mainly  from  English  caricaturists.  In 
fact,  our  modern  school  of  caricature  dates  from 
almost  the  same  time  as  that  of  England,  and  both 
followed  closely  after  that  of  Italy,  France  and  Ger- 
many. In  all  these  countries  the  first  political 
caricatures  were  lithograph  sheets,  passed  about 
from  hand  to  hand;  usually  issued  by  the  artists 
themselves  at  first,  and  subsequently  by  some  pub- 
lishing house.  The  founder  of  the  modern  school 
in  England  was  James  Gillray,  who  was  born  in 
1757,  a  few  years  before  the  death  of  Hogarth. 
His  earlier  work,  which  was  mainly  social,  partook 
largely  of  the  characteristics  of  the  caricaturists 
who  had  preceded  him.  It  was  generally  coarse, 
and  it  nearly  always  made  its  effect  by  use  of 
exaggeration.  In  his  later  years,  however,  between 
1803  and  1811,  he  turned  his  attention  to  political 
caricature,  beginning  with  Napoleon  as  a  subject, 

and  adopted  methods  from  which  the  modern  school 

(111) 


112 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


has  been  developed.  It  would  be  more  accurate  to 
say  that  Gillray  pointed  the  way  to  the  founding 
of  the  modern  school  of  political  caricature,  rather 
than  that  he  was  its  founder.  He  never  separated 
himself  entirely  from   the  tradition,   as  old  almost 


THE    IVI  U  S  T  A  N  G    T  E  A  M 


as  the  art  of  drawing,  that  coarseness  and  exag- 
geration were  the  essential  elements  of  humor  as 
exhibited  in  caricature. 

The  first  English  artist  to  make  that  separation 
completely  was  John  Doyle,  father  of  Richard 
Doyle.     He  began  to  publish  political  caricatures 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE       113 

in  1830,  under  the  signature  of  "H.  B.,"  and  was 
the  first  caricaturist  to  preserve  faithfully  in  all 
cases  the  likenesses  of  his  subjects,  and  to  give  to 
them  their  individual  attitudes  and  tricks  of  man- 
ner. He  was  the  real  founder  of  the  "Punch" 
cartoon  as  it  has  been  developed  by  Richard  Doyle, 
John  Leech  and  John  Tenniel.  He  preferred  to 
draw  single  figures,  though  he  sometimes  produced 
groups  with  several  figures,  calling  his  productions 
"Political  Sketches."  It  is  a  curious  and  interesting 
fact  that  the  United  States  supplied  the  inspiration 
for  one  of  his  most  successful  pictures,  and  incident- 
ally, perhaps,  helped  to  lay  the  foundation  for  the 
double-page  group-cartoon  with  which  we  are  so 
familiar  to-day.  In  1836,  Thomas  D.  Rice,  the 
father  of  negro  minstrelsy  in  America,  went  to 
London  to  introduce  his  invention.  His  "Jim 
Crow"  song  proved  a  great  popular  hit,  and  all 
London  went  to  hear  it  and  then  went  about  singing 
it.  Doyle,  with  the  quick  eye  which  is  the  sine  qua 
non  of  the  true  political  caricaturist,  drew  and 
issued  a  large  cartoon  in  which  all  the  leading 
politicians  of  the  day  who  had  been  changing  their 
party  affiliations  or  modifying  their  views  were 
represented  as  assembled  at  a  ball,  and  as  being  led 
forward,  one  by  one,  by  Rice  to  be  taught  to  "  turn 
about  and  wheel  about  and  jump  Jim  Crow." 

The  establishment  of  "Punch"  in  1841  put  an 
end  to  the  lithograph  sheet  caricatures  in  England. 
The  famous  "Punch"  cartoonists,  Richard  Doyle, 
John  Leech,  John  Tenniel,    Linley  Sanbourne  and 


114 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


Bernard  Partridge,  followed  John  Doyle's  departure 
in  preserving  likenesses,  but  the  double-page  car- 
toon   with    many   figures   has    been    the    exception 


wAomjfOU  wtil/tnd  comiuu^.  aUdu- 

hlua/usiTi',  and'M'horrt  wf  propostto 
rujLt  CanduieUc  for  tht/ 
Pre4uitn^. 


/VZSAH£^wr*ciJaMt^ 


V^N    HEIR  TO  THE  THRONE, 

.  PB-TRR,  JSEXT  BEPCilJLI  CAN    CA33)1I>A.XE . 


Acr-4«*<fl«  -0=^  e» 


with  them  rather  than  the  rule.  The  typical 
"Punch"  cartoon  is  confined  to  a  few  figures,  fre- 
quently to  one.  While  there  has  been  a  steady 
advance  in  artistic  merit  since  1841,  there  has  been 
little  change  in  the  general  style  of  political  carica- 
ture in  "Punch." 

In  the  United  States  the  many-figured  group- 
cartoon  appears  to  have  been  a  steady  favorite 
since  Jackson's  time.  Its  immediate  inspirers  were 
undoubtedly  Gillray  and  John  Doyle,  more  especially 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE      115 

the  latter,  whose  sketches  had  been  filling  the  shop- 
windows  of  London  for  two  years  when  similar 
productions  began  to  appear  on  this  side  of  the  water, 
Doyle  had  followed  Gillray  at  a  considerable  dis- 
tance, however;  for  he  was  a  far  inferior  artist  in 
every  way,  having  slight  perception  of  humor  and 
being  hard  and  inflexible  in  his  methods.  What 
Doyle  did  was  to  take  Gillray's  occasional  act  of 
giving  a  correct  likeness,  and  make  it  his  own  per- 
manent practice.  His  sketches  are  valuable  to-day 
chiefly  for  this  quality,  all  his  drawings  of  leading 
men  of  the  period  being  veritable  portraits  of  real 


^THC  JIEMOCBATIC    PLAjronM^ 


historical  value,  some  of  them  the  best  in  existence. 
Our  early  American  political  caricaturists  followed 
Doyle's   example   as  faithfully   as   their   powers   as 


116 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


draftsmen  would  permit.  That  they  did  not  suc- 
ceed very  well  in  the  beginning  was  not  strange. 
Drawing  was  scarcely  taught  at  all  in  this  country 
at  the  time,  and  the  only  persons  who  were  skilled 
in  it  had  drifted  here  from  abroad,  and  had  little 


t 


<^ 


>'         ^^ 


^ 


THE     RAIL    CANDJnaTr 


knowledge  of  our  politics  and  public  men.  It  was 
only  in  very  rare  instances,  therefore,  that  a  litho- 
graph caricature  of  an  earlier  date  than  1840  can  be 
found  which  is  even  tolerable,  either  in  conception 
or  execution.  There  was  a  slight  improvement 
after  that  period,  and  by  1850  a  sufficient  advance 
had  been  made   to  justify   the  assertion   that   the 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE      117 

foundation  of  a  school  of  American  political  carica- 
ture had  been  laid.  In  1848  Messr§.  Currier  & 
Ives  began,  in  Nassau  Street,  New  York  City,  the 
publication  of  campaign  caricatures  in  lithograph 
sheets  similar  to  those  which  had  been  issued  in 
London  and  other  foreign  cities.  This  was  the  year 
of  the  Taylor-Cass- Van  Buren  campaign,  which 
resulted  in  Taylor's  election.  Few  of  the  carica- 
tures of  that  year  are  obtainable  now,  or  of  those 
issued  by  the  same  firm  in  the  following  campaign 
of  1852.  A  complete  set  had  been  preserved  by 
the  publishers,  but  was  stolen  during  a  fire  several 
years  ago. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SOME    EARLIER    CARTOONS. 

I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  James  M.  Ives,  of  Currier 
&  Ives,  for  much  interesting  information  about  the 
entire  series  of  early  caricatures,  and  for  several 
of  the  earlier  sketches,  including  the  original  drawing 
of  the  Jackson  kitchen-clearing  picture.  There  was 
a  contemporary  caricature,  now  unobtainable,  called 
*'Rats  Leaving  a  Falling  House,"  which  represented 
Jackson  seated  in  a  kitchen,  smoking,  while  five  rats, 
bearing  the  heads  of  the  members  of  his  cabinet, 
were  scurrying  to  get  out  by  doors,  windows  and 
other  openings.  Jackson  had  planted  his  foot  on  the 
tail  of  the  one  which  bore  Martin  Van  Buren's  head, 
and  was  holding  him  fast.  This  caricature,  as  well 
as  its  companion,  "Jackson  Clearing  his  Kitchen," 
is  believed  to  have  been  the  work  of  an  English 
artist  named  E.  W.  Clay.  Both  were  published  in 
1831,  soon  after  the  dissolution  of  the  "kitchen 
cabinet."  The  faces  in  the  kitchen-clearing  scene 
are  all  portraits:  Van  Buren,  Nicholas  Biddle, 
President  of  the  United  States  Bank,  and  Calhoun 
stand  nearest  to  Jackson;  prostrate  on  the  floor  is 
Dixon  H.  Lewis,  whose  portly  figure  was  a  conspic- 
uous feature  of  the  Washington  life  of  the  time; 
and  fleeing  from  the  room  with  outstretched  arms 
is  Francis  P.  Blair,  editor  of  the  Jacksonian  organ, 
the  "Globe." 

(118) 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE      119 

An  interesting  caricature  of  a  decade  or  so  later 
is  that  called  "A  Boston  Notion  for  the  World's 
Fair."     This  was  drawn  by  Clay,  and  was  aimed 


AAd/ean6etifA££i/7^oinC>^.\       {  DonT  crvw  too  Zand /r^ 
•d  Old  ktntucAj  too  f /       \fuie-/Uiaw.fyej-cjaAe4iead^\ 


THE  GHEATSUTCHAT  BALTIMOHEL, 

0rrwCENTHnLUNOIS  BANTAMlANDTHrDLO  COClCOFTHEWHlIEJlOUSE, 


at  the  Abolition  movement,  which  was  steadily 
making  headway  in  Boston  under  the  leadership 
of  Garrison.  Uncle  Sam  appears  in  this  dressed  in 
the  style  of  Franklin,  as  was  always  his  garb  in  the 
earlier  American  caricatures.  The  World's  Fair 
referred  to  was  that  held  in  New  York  in  1844. 
Clay  is  also  the  author  of  the  single  representative 
we  have  of  the  triangular  contest  of  1848,  when 
Taylor,  Cass  and  Van  Buren  were  the  Presidential 
candidates.     Marcy,  the  author  of  the  phrase  "To 


120 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


the  victors  belong  the  spoils,"  appears  in  this  with  a 
patch  on  his  trousers  marked  "50  cents,"  which 
was  an  invariable  feature  of  any  caricature  of  him. 


YOUNG    AMERICA 


It  was  based  on  a  report  that  he  had,  while  Governor 
of  New  York,  included  in  a  bill  against  the  State, 
for  traveling  expenses,  a  charge  "to  patching 
trousers — 50  cents,"  his  reason  being  that  as  he  had 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE      121 

torn  the  trousers  while  on  business  for  the  State,  it 
was  the  State's  duty  to  repair  the  damage.  Van 
Buren  is  represented  towing  the  boat  "up  Salt 
River"  because  he  was  the  candidate  of  a  faction 
which  had  bolted  from  the  nomination  of  Cass,  and 
was  thus  making  the  latter's  election  impossible. 
Marcy  appears  in  the  caricature  of  the  Pierce 
campaign  of  1852  with  his  hand  covering  the  patch, 
he  havingobviously  become  weary  of  the  allusions  to 
it  by  this  time.  In  this  picture  Pierce,  of  whom  a 
striking  likeness  is  presented,  is  borne  upon  the 
shoulders  of  William  R.  King,  who  was  the  candidate 
for  Vice-President,  while  Stephen  A.  Douglas  assists 
Marcy  in  supporting  him. 

In  their  original  form,  the  cartoons  here  given 
were  about  the  size  of  the  ordinary  double-page 
cartoon  in  "Puck."  With  the  exception  of  the  two 
earliest,  all  of  them  were  published  by  Currier  & 
Ives.  In  all  of  them  the  faces  are  carefully  drawn 
portraits,  and  the  figures  are  presented  in  natural 
attitudes.  The  general  style  of  the  pictures  is 
similar  to  that  of  the  earlier  political-caricature 
period  in  European  countries.  The  figures  are 
presented  almost  invariably  without  background, 
and  each  of  them  is  represented  as  giving  utterance 
to  some  sentiment  which  is  enclosed  in  a  loop  over 
his  head.  This  use  of  the  loop  has  been  abandoned 
in  nearly  or  quite  all  European  countries  some  time 
before  its  appearance  here.  It  is  to  be  found  in 
some  but  not  in  all  of  the  Gillray  caricatures,  in 
some  of  Doyle's  and  very  rarely  in  the  earlier  num- 


122  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

bers  of  "Punch."  The  European  artists  abandoned 
the  practice  when  they  began  to  draw  and  compose 
their  caricatures  so  well  that  they  told  their  own 
story,  with  the  aid  of  a  title  or  a  few  words  of 
dialogue  beneath  them.  The  early  American  cari- 
caturists used  the  loop  as  generously  as  possible, 
as  the  specimens  of  their  work  given  herewith 
testify.  Their  publishers  found  that  the  public 
demanded  this,  and  that  a  picture  without  the 
loops  would  not  sell.  Yet  the  pictures  told  their 
story  perfectly  without  these  aids.  In  looking  over 
a  large  collection  of  them,  I  did  not  find  one  whose 
meaning  was  not  made  obvious  by  the  title  beneath 
it.  Take  the  five  relating  to  the  campaign  of  1856, 
for  example,  and  see  how  plainly  their  meaning 
appears  at  a  glance.  In  "The  Great  Presidential 
Sweepstakes"  Fillmore  is  starting  well  in  the  lead, 
because  as  the  candidate  of  the  American  party 
he  had  been  the  first  nominee  in  the  field.  Next 
to  him  comes  Buchanan,  borne  on  the  shoulders  of 
Franklin  Pierce,  whose  successor  in  the  Presidency 
he  was  to  be;  and  bringing  up  the  rear  is  a  cart  with 
Fremont  in  the  driver's  seat,  Jessie  Benton  Fremont 
stowed  snugly  in  behind,  Mr.  Beecher  lifting  at  the 
wheel  and  Horace  Greeley  coaxing  the  sorry-looking 
horse  to  pull  his  burden  through  the  "Abolition 
cesspool"  in  which  the  whole  party  is  wallowing. 
"The  Mustang  Team"  tells  its  story  with  equal 
directness.  Here  we  have  the  three  editors,  Greeley, 
Bennett  and  Raymond,  astride  Fremont's  sorry  nag, 
while  another  of  the  chief  editors  of  the  day.  General 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE     123 

James  Watson  Webb,  is  catching  on  behind.  This 
was  the  forerunner  of  the  oft-repeated  cartoon  of  the 
present  day,  in  which  editors  of  our  great  journals 


"THC  IMPENDING  CRISi^'-OR  CAUGHT  INTHCACT. 


^*f  III  I J  »  Cv^tM*. 


are  frequently  made  to  figure  in  even  less  favorable 
attitudes.  The  Fremont  cart  has  the  same  look  as 
in  the  first  picture,  with  the  addition  of  a  bag  for 
the  "Bleeding  Kansas  Fund."  It  is  noticeable 
that  the  face  of  Uncle  Sam,  who  figures  as  toll- 
gatherer  in  this  picture  and  who  has  changed  his 
costume  since  the  cartoon  of  1843,  is  drawn  without 
the  chin-beard  which  he  wears  habitually  in  modern 
cartoons.  In  all  the  pictures  of  this  period  he  is 
clean-shaven. 

No  word  is  necessary  in  explanation  of  the  picture 


124  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

in  which  Farmer  Fillmore  is  about  to  scatter  the 
rats  who  are  swarming  about  the  "public  crib"  in 
the  hope  of  getting  possession  of  its  contents.  As 
a  prophecy,  the  picture  was  as  bad  a  failure  as  its 
companion — which  represents  Fillmore  as  standing 
between  Fremont  and  Buchanan  keeping  them  from 
each  other's  throats,  and  as  destined  presumably  to 
triumph  over  them  at  the  polls — for  Buchanan  was 
subsequently  victorious.  The  early  appearance  of 
the  "public  crib"  as  a  synonym  for  the  spoils  of 
office  is  a  point  of  some  interest.  It  was  evidently 
familiar  at  the  time  this  picture  was  drawn,  and 
may  date  back  to  Jackson's  time,  possibly  far 
beyond  that,  coming  to  us  from  English  usage. 
"The  Democratic  Platform"  gives  a  full-length 
picture  of  Uncle  Sam  without  the  beard,  but  with 
a  costume  similar  to  that  which  is  still  assigned  to 
him.  The  three  supporters  of  the  platform  are 
Benton,  Pierce  and  Van  Buren.  The  latter  was 
known  as  "Prince  John,"  while  his  father,  the 
ex-President,  was  known  as  the  "Old  Fox."  In 
the  caricature  Prince  John  is  talking  to  his  father, 
who  is  presented  as  a  fox  peering  from  a  hole. 
This  picture,  which  has  obvious  points  of  strength, 
was  a  very  successful  one,  and  had  a  large  sale. 


CHAPTER  V. 

CARTOONS    OF    LIXCOLX's    FIRST    CAMPAIGN. 

Many  of  the  cartoons  in  which  Lincoln  figured 
represent  him  in  connection  with  one  or  more  fence 
rails.  He  had  become  the  "rail-splitter"  candidate 
in  as  unexpected  a  way  as  Gen.  Harrison  had  become 
the  log  cabin  candidate  a  few  years  earlier.  At 
the  Republican  State  Convention  of  Illinois,  in 
May,  1860,  Lincoln  was  present  as  a  spectator  and 
was  invited  to  a  seat  on  the  platform.  Soon  after 
the  proceedings  began,  one  of  the  delegates,  the  once 
famous  "Dick"  Oglesby,  asked  to  be  allowed  to 
offer  a  contribution  to  the  convention.  The  outer 
door  of  the  hall  swung  open  and  John  Hanks,  a 
cousin  of  Lincoln,  advanced  toward  the  platform 
bearing  two  weather-beaten  rails,  upon  which  was 
displayed  a  banner  with  this  inscription : 

ABRAHAM    LINCOLN 

THE  RAIL  CANDIDATE 

FOR    PRESIDENT   IN    1860. 

Two  rails  from  a  lot  of  3,000  made  in  1830  by 
Thomas  Hanks  and  Abe  Lincoln,  whose  father  was 
the  first  pioneer  of  Macon  County. 

This  novel  exhibit  caused  a  tremendous  uproar, 
with  cries  for  Lincoln.  As  soon  as  quiet  was 
restored,  he  arose  and  said:  "I  suppose  I  am 
expected  to  reply  to  that.     I  cannot  say  whether 

(13o) 


126 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


I  made  those  rails  or  not,  but  I  am  quite  sure  I  have 
made  a  great  many  just  as  good."  An  ardent  Lin- 
coln delegate  said  afterwards  in  describing  the  scene : 
"These  rails  were  to  represent  the  issue  in  the  coming 
contest  between  labor  free  and  labor  slave;  between 
democracy  and  aristocracy.  Little  did  I  think  of 
the  mighty  consequences  of  this  little  incident; 
little  did  I  think  that  the  tall  and  angular  and  bony 
rail-splitter,  who  stood  in  girlish  diflBdence  bowing 
with  awkward  grace,  would  fill  the  chair  once  filled 


tHCMNICGER"  I  NTHE  WOODPILE. 


by  Washington,  and  that  his  name  would  echo  in 
chants  of  praise  along  the  corridor  of  all  coming 
time." 

The  seven  caricatures,  reproduced  in  these  pages, 
relating  to  the  great  campaign  of  1860  were  the 
most    successful    of    the    kind    ever   issued    in    this 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE     127 

country.  Probably  the  first  of  the  series  was  that 
which  represents  Douglas  as  the  victorious  cock  in 
the  pit,  crowing  upon  the  prostrate  form  of  Buchanan 
after  the  Baltimore  convention,  for  Douglas  was  the 
first  of  the  four  Presidential  candidates  who  took  the 
field  that  year.  This  is  one  of  the  best-drawn  and 
most  vigorous  in  the  collection,  and  compares 
favorably  with  the  caricatures  of  the  present  day. 
The  two  pictures  in  which  Lincoln  is  the  chief 
figure,  "The  Nigger  in  the  Woodpile"  and  "An 
Heir  to  the  Throne,"  came  out  soon  after  his  nomi- 
nation, and  the  likeness  of  him  which  is  presented 
in  both  of  them  seems  to  be  based  on  the  photograph 
which  was  taken  in  Chicago  in  1857.  It  is  a  power- 
ful face,  full  of  the  same  sad  and  noble  dignity 
which  became  more  deeply  marked  upon  it  in  later 
years — the  face  indeed,  even  then,  of  the  "kindly, 
earnest,  brave,  foreseeing  man"  of  Lowell's  immortal 
ode. 

The  caricaturists  of  the  period  were  quick  to  seize 
upon  whatever  happened  to  the  uppermost  in  the 
public  mind  at  the  moment,  with  which  to  add 
point  to  their  pictures.  Thus  Barnum's  famous 
"What  is  it?"  was  used  to  make  a  point  against  the 
Abolition  issue  in  Lincoln's  election.  The  two  com- 
panion pictures  of  this  1860  collection,  "The 
Impending  Crisis"  and  "The  Irrepressible  Conflict," 
had  a  very  large  sale,  exceeding  50,000  copies  each. 
They  represent  the  failure  of  Seward  to  obtain  the 
Republican  nomination,  and  in  both  Horace  Greeley 
is  pictured  as  the  chief  agent  of  the  disaster.     In 


128  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

one  instance  Mr.  Greeley  is  depicted  as  having 
pushed  Mr.  Seward  off  a  wharf,  and  as  having 
been  caught  in  the  act  by  Henry  J.  Raymond, 
while  General  Webb  gives  evidence  as  an  eye  witness. 
In  the  other  Mr.  Greeley  is  throwing  Mr.  Seward 
overboard  from  a  boat  which  Lincoln  is  steering, 
and  which  is  very  heavily  loaded  with  the  leaders 
of  the  Republican  party.  Mr.  Seward's  famous 
phrase,  which  gives  the  picture  its  title,  was  uttered 
in  October,  1858,  and  had  passed  almost  imme- 
diately into  the  political  vocabulary  of  the  people. 
One  of  the  most  peculiar  of  the  caricatures  of  this 
1860  campaign  is  that  called  "Progressive  Democ- 
racy." The  manner  in  which  the  heads  of  the 
Democratic  candidates  are  placed  upon  the  bodies 
of  the  mules  in  this  picture  is  the  same  as  that 
employed  in  all  the  earlier  caricatures  before  the 
year  1800,  and  but  rarely  after  that  time.  Early 
in  the  nineteenth  century  the  caricaturists  began  to 
form  the  human  features  from  the  face  of  an  animal, 
rather  than  to  hang  the  human  head  in  front  of  the 
animal's  ears  as  is  done  in  this  picture.  The  prom- 
inent position  occupied  by  the  Tammany  Indian 
gives  evidence  that  the  politics  of  that  period  did 
not  differ  in  some  respects  from  the  politics  of  to-day. 
All  these  caricatures  of  1856  and  1860  were  drawn 
by  Louis  Maurer. 

Belonging  to  a  different  class  of  caricatures  of  this 
period  are  four  cartoons,  published  in  a  series  on 
a  single  page  of  Harper's  Weekly  on  March  9th, 
1861,  relating  to   Lincoln's  secret  midnight  journey 


(1.)  THE  ALARM. 
"  On  Thursday  night,  after  he  had  retired,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  aroused,  and  informed  tliat 
a  stranger  desired  to  see  him  on  a  matter  of  life  and  death.  *  *  *  A  conversation  elicited 
l!ie  fact  that  an  organized  body  of  men  had  determined  that  Mr.  Lincoln  should  never  leave 
the  City  of  Baltimore  alive.  *  *  *  Statesmen  laid  the  plan,  Bankers  indorsed  it,  and  Advene 
turets  ^ere  to  carry  it  into  effect." 

(From  "  Harper's  Weekly."    Courtesy  of  Harper  &  Brothers.) 


(2.)    THE    COUNCIL. 

"Mr.  Llvcoln  did  not  want  to  yield,  and  his  friends  cried  with  indignatioa      But  tliey 
insisted,  and  he  left." 

(From  "Harper's  AVeekly."    Courtesy  of  Harper  &  Broti.-  r-  .> 


(3.)    THE    SPECIAL    TRAII^. 

♦'He  wore  a  Scotch  .plaid  Cap  and  a  very  long  Militaiy  Cloak,  so  that  h©  was  entireJy 
unrecognizable." 

iFrom  "Harper's  Weekly."    Courtesy  of  Harper  &  Brothers.) 


(4.)    THB    OLD    COMPLAINT.* 
**Mr.  Lincoln,  acconjpanied  by  Mr.  Seward,  paid  his  respects  to  Frosident  BuchaKai^ 
spending  a  few  minutes  in  general  conversation." 

(From  "Harper's  Weekly."    Courtesy  of  Harper&  Brothers.) 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE      137 

through  Baltimore  in  February,  on  his  way  to 
Washington  to  be  inaugurated,  and  his  subsequent 
arrival.  These  reveal  much  of  the  contemptuous 
view  taken  of  Lincoln  in  certain  parts  of  the  north 
during  the  campaign. 


'  \   l„rl  ,  ,U  ^  -"^    'A  \>1 


«*^4)MkM?^WCt 


THE    SECESSION   MOVEIVIENT. 


In  the  two  other  specimens  of  the  caricatures  of 
1861,  which  are  here  presented  with  those  of  later  date, 
the  most  interesting  is  that  called  "The  Secession 
Movement."  This  is  an  almost  exact  reproduction 
of  a  very  successful  caricature  of  Jackson's  time. 
Its  authorship  is  unknown.  In  its  original  form  it 
represented    Jackson    "going    the    whole    hog"  in 


138 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


his  quest  for  popularity,  reaching  out  for  a  butterfly 
labeled  "Popularity,"  and  exclaiming,  "By  the 
Eternal,  I'll  get  it!"  He  was  mounted  upon  the 
hog  which  South  Carolina  is  riding  in  the  present 
picture,  and  behind  him  upon  donkeys  rode  the  mem- 
bers of  his  "kitchen  cabinet,"  with  the  exception  of 


JIUI^INING  THE"lViACHII\E": 


^'.i..-  J  CtfnU^^'.^ 


Van  Buren.  The  latter,  mounted  upon  a  fox,  was 
taking  the  course  pursued  by  Georgia  in  the  later 
picture,  and  was  uttering  a  phrase  which  he  had 
made  public  in  one  of  his  letters,  to  the  effect  that, 
while  he  generally  followed  his  illustrious  leader,  he 
had  thought  it  advisable  in  the  present  emergency 
to  "deviate  a  little."     This  fixes  the  date  of  the 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE      139 

original  picture  at  the  beginning  of  the  campaign 
of  1832,  after  Van  Buren  had  resigned  from  the 
cabinet.  The  other  specimen  of  the  year  1861, 
"Running  the  Machine,"  shows  Lincoln's  cabinet 
in  session,  and  gives  us  a  poor  portrait  of  him. 
The  green-back  mill,  which  Fessenden,  as  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  is  turning,  shows  a  productive 
capacity  which  will  attract  the  interest,  and  may 
excite  the  envy,  of  the  fiat  money  advocates  of  a 
later  time.  But  the  caricature  which  outstripped 
all  others  in  popularity  in  the  early  war  period  was 
that  drawn  by  Frank  Beard,  called  "Why  Don't 
You  Take  It.?"  This  had  a  sale  exceeding  100,000 
copies,  and  went  to  all  parts  of  the  North.  It  was 
reproduced,  in  a  weakened  form,  and  placed  on 
envelopes  among  the  countless  other  devices  which 
were  used  in  that  w^ay  to  express  Union  sentiment. 
An  interesting  collection  of  these  decorated  envelopes 
is  among  the  archives  of  the  New  York  Historical 
Society.  Mr.  Beard's  formidable  bull-dog  was 
intended  to  represent  General  Scott,  and  in  some  of 
the  reduced  reproductions  Scott's  name  was  placed 
upon  his  collar.  The  caricature  hit  the  popular 
fancy  when  the  Confederate  army  was  threatening 
to  advance  upon  Washington,  and  streets  were  made 
impassable  wherever  it  was  exhibited  in  shop- 
windows. 

The  publication  of  these  lithograph  caricatures 
was  continued  through  the  Lincoln-McClellan  cam- 
paign of  1864,  one  specimen  of  w^hich  is  presented, 
showing  General  McClellan  as  a  peacemaker  between 


140 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


Lincoln  and  Jefferson  Davis.  This  likeness  of  Lin- 
coln is  so  inaccurate  as  to  be  almost  unrecognizable, 
and  is  by  John  Cameron,  the  artist  who  drew  the 
cabinet  group.  Caricatures  were  issued  also  during 
the  campaigns  of  1868  and  1872,  two  of  which  are 
given  herewith.  One  represents  Greeley  in  a  per- 
ambulator propelled  by  Theodore  Tilton,  with  Vic- 
toria Woodhull  behind  him,  and  Col.  John  Cochrane 
in  front  admonishing  him  to  quietness.  The  other 
represents  Schurz,  Greeley,  Sumner  and  other  leaders 
of  the  anti-Grant  movement  dancing  on  a  gridiron. 


X\>./i^'^ 


THE  TRUE  ISSUE  OR"THATS  WHATS  THE  MATTEFT. 


They  did  not  differ  materially  from  the  earlier  ones, 
showing  very  little  progress  in  either  design  or 
drawing. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ILLUSTRATED  WEEKLY  CARTOONS. 

The  death  knell  of  the  lithograph  sheet  caricature 
was  sounded  when  the  illustrated  newspapers  began 
to  publish  their  political  caricatures.  They  did 
not  do  this  till  the  close  of  the  war,  though  Thomas 
Nast  made  his  first  appearance  in  "Harper's 
Weekly"  while  the  war  was  in  progress.  His 
pictures  during  the  war  were  serious  in  purpose, 
and  cannot  be  classed  as  caricatures.  He  began 
his  career  as  a  political  caricaturist  when  Andrew 
Johnson  started  to  "swing  round  the  circle,"  but 
his  fame  rests  on  achievements  of  a  later  period. 
His  series  of  about  fifty  cartoons  upon  the  Tammany 
Ring,  during  and  following  the  exposures  of  1871, 
constitute  a  distinct  epoch  in  American  political 
caricature.  He  was  unlike  any  caricaturist  who 
had  preceded  him,  and  his  successors  have  not  fol- 
lowed his  methods.  He  gave  to  the  satiric  art  of 
caricature  a  power  that  it  had  never  before  known 
in  this  country,  and  seldom  in  any  country.  It  is 
impossible  to  look  at  this  work  of  his,  in  the  light 
of  what  had  preceded  it,  and  of  what  has  come  after 
it,  and  not  say  that  Nast  stands  by  himself,  the 
creator  of  a  school  which  not  only  began  but  ended 
with  him.  He  had  drawn  political  caricatures 
before  he  had  Tweed  and  his  allies  for  subjects, 
and   he  drew   other  political   caricatures   after  his 

(141) 


142 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


destructive,  deadly  work  with  them  was  finished; 
but  his  fame  will  rest  on  his  work  of  that  period. 
While  he  had  no  successor  in  artistic  methods,  the 
success  of  caricature  in  the  pages  of  an  illustrated 
newspaper   was   so    clearly    demonstrated   by   him, 


iAviUji  -" 


"THE    IRRgPBESSIBLE   CONFLICT j; 


^1.^   ■J  It 


that  he  pointed  the  way  to  the  establishing  of  the 
weekly  journals  devoted  to  that  purpose  which 
sprang  up  later,  and  which,  for  a  time,  so  completely 
occupied  the  field  that  "Harper's  Weekly"  and  other 
similar  competitors  practically  withdrew  from  it. 
The   founder  and  chief  developer  of  that  school 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE      143 

of  political  caricature  in  America,  as  we  behold  it  in 
the  many-colored  cartoons  of  "Puck"  and  "Judge," 
was  a  young  artist  and  actor  from  Vienna,  named 
Joseph  Keppler,  who  reached  St.  Louis  in  1868  in 
search  of  his  fortune.  He  had  studied  drawing 
under  the  best  teachers  in  Vienna's  Academy  of 
Fine  Arts,  but  a  strong  inclination  for  acting  had 
taken  him  upon  the  stage.  During  the  first  year 
or  two  after  his  arrival  in  America  he  went  about 
the  country  as  a  member  of  a  traveling  theatrical 
troupe,  appearing  in  the  theatres  of  many  cities, 
including  those  at  St.  Louis,  New  Orleans  and 
New  York.  His  hand  turned  naturally  to  carica- 
ture, and  after  vain  attempts  to  sell  some  of  his 
drawings  to  daily  newspapers  in  St.  Louis,  he 
started  in  that  city  in  1869  an  illustrated  litho- 
graphic weekly,  in  German,  with  the  title  "Die 
Vehme."  The  subject  of  his  first  caricature  was 
Carl  Schurz,  at  that  time  a  conspicuous  figure  in 
St.  Louis.  The  paper  had  a  short  life,  and  was 
succeeded  in  1870  by  a  new  venture  called  "  Puck." 
Two  volumes  of  this  were  issued,  that  of  the  first 
year  being  in  German  alone,  and  that  of  the  second 
in  both  German  and  English.  The  enterprise  was 
doing  fairly  well,  when  Keppler  was  compelled  to 
abandon  it.  He  went  to  New  York  city  in  1873, 
where  he  did  some  work  for  a  weekly  illustrated 
paper  for  a  time,  and  also  reappeared  upon  the  local 
stage  as  an  actor.  In  September,  1876,  the  first 
number  of  "Puck"  of  the  present  day  was  issued 
in  German,  and  in  March,  1877,  the  first  number  in 


144 


OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 


English  made  its  appearance.  The  "Puck"  of 
those  early  days  was  a  very  different  thing  from 
what   it   became   later.     Its    cartoons    were    drawn 


WRY  DO  NIT  YQU   TAKE    IT? 


on  wood,  and  were  in  white  and  black.  The  draw- 
ing was  strong,  but  the  composition  of  the  pictures 
was  almost  as  crude  as  that  of  the  old  lithograph 
sheets.  Keppler  at  first  followed  the  French  and 
Italian  schools  of  caricature,  exaggerating  the  size 
of  the  heads  and  the  length  of  the  legs.  He  very 
soon  abandoned  this,  however,  and  began  to  feel 
his  way  toward  the  gradual  unfolding  of  what  under 
his  guidance  became  a  distinctly  American  school 
of  caricature.  In  1878  he  began  to  draw  on  stone, 
and  in  order  to  brighten  the  effect  of  his  pictures 
he  commenced  to  tint  them  slightly  with  a  single 
color.     In  1879  two  colors  or  tints  were  used,  and 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE      145 

from  that  time  on  the  growth  was  steady  and  rapid, 
until  the  bright  and  multi-colored  cartoon  of  the 
present  day  was  developed. 

No  one  can  look  at  the  lithograph  sheet  carica- 
tures of  1856  and  1860  and  not  be  struck  with  the 
strong  general  resemblance  which  they  bear  to  the 
cartoons  of  Keppler's  day.  There  is  the  same 
use  of  many  figures  in  both,  and  the  same  mingling 
of  editors,  politicians,  and  other  prominent  per- 
sonages in  groups  and  situations  illustrating  and 
ridiculing    the    political    developments    of  the   day. 


■  •   '■■■'■■■  <•'"./':""•/!.    • 
.  f »//  /  uuil  bt.  stepped  f^jo^i 


RED  HOT  REPUBLICANS  ON  THE  DEMOCRATIC  GRIDIRONJ 


Instead  of  using  the  overhead  loops  to  explain  the 
meaning  of  the  picture,  however,  the  Keppler  school 
of  artists  built  up  elaborate  backgrounds   and  sur- 


146  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

rounded  the  central  figures  with  details  which,  if 
the  cartoon  was  a  success,  helped  to  tell  its  story 
at  a  glance.  The  artistic  merit  of  the  modern 
cartoon  was,  of  course,  far  in  advance  of  its  pre- 
decessors. The  style  was  very  different  from  that 
of  the  "Punch"  cartoon,  which  has  been  developed 
from  the  same  original  source  as  the  American. 
Both  trace  their  pedigree  back  to  Gillray  and 
Doyle,  but  the  development  has  been  in  different 
directions.  The  "Punch"  cartoon  of  to-day  is 
confined  in  almost  all  instances  to  a  few  figures, 
and,  except  in  the  great  advance  made  in  artistic 
merit,  does  not  differ  in  general  style  from  the 
"Punch"  cartoon  of  fifty  years  ago.  The  American 
cartoon,  on  the  contrary,  was  a  modern  creation. 
It  took  the  old  group  idea  of  Gillray  and  Doyle, 
made  it  gorgeous  with  colors,  built  it  up  and  forti- 
fied it  with  backgrounds,  and  imparted  to  the 
figures  and  faces  of  its  personages  a  freedom  of 
humor  and  a  terrible  vigor  of  satire  which  were 
peculiarly  American.  The  author  and  gradual 
unfolder  of  this  cartoon  was  Keppler,  who  had  the 
honor  not  only  of  founding  a  school  of  American 
caricature,  but  of  establishing  successful  comic 
journalism  in  America.  He  had  able  disciples  and 
coadjutors  in  Gillam,  Taylor,  Opper,  Dalrymple, 
and  others,  and  an  invaluable  associate  and  helper 
on  the  literary  side  in  H.  C.  Bunner;  but  he  was  the 
pioneer. 

This  school  of  weekly  journalism,  with  its  many- 
colored  political  cartoons  and  its  comic  and  satirical 


\i  '^1  hniirzn   ion. 


"love's  labor  lost." 

(From  •■Puck"  of  May  7,  1884.) 


^.  "^ 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE       155 

letter-press,  was  at  the  summit  of  its  power  in  the 
Blaine-Cleveland  campaign  of  1884.  Probably  no 
more  terribly  effective  series  of  political  caricatures 
was  ever  issued  than  that  which  "Puck"  put  forth 
in  that  campaign.  Certainly  nothing  that  the  same 
journal  did  subsequently  in  the  campaigns  of   1888 


THE    ELEPHANT   AND  HIS  KEEPERS 


and  1892,  while  it  retained  its  political  prominence, 
approached  them  in  power.  Four  of  the  most 
famous  of  them,  all  from  the  pencil  of  Gillam,  who 
was  Keppler's  chief  assistant,  are  reproduced  in 
these  pages.  While  something  of  their  original 
force  is  taken  away  by  the  absence  of  the  colors 
in  which  they  were  first  published,  enough  of  it 
remains  to  give  an  adequate  idea  of  the  extraordi- 


156  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

nary  vigor  and  merciless  directness  which  charac- 
terized them.  They  literally  struck  terror  to  the 
supporters  of  Mr.  Blaine  wherever  they  appeared, 
and  there  was  no  corner  in  the  land  to  which  they 
did  not  penetrate.  In  this  and  in  several  subse- 
quent national  campaigns,  "Puck,"  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  Mugwump  and  Democratic  forces, 
and  "Judge,"  as  the  representative  of  the  Republi- 
can party,  exerted  an  influence  in  the  politics  of  the 
country  which  was  probably  greater  than  that  of 
all  the  daily  press  combined.  Their  weekly  car- 
toons were  awaited  eagerly,  were  passed  from  hand 
to  hand,  and  were  the  subject  of  animated  comment 
in  all  political  circles. 

Within  the  past  five  years  this  influence  has  waned 
so  rapidly  that  very  little  of  it  remains  to-day. 
Doubtless  one  cause  of  the  decline  was  the  death  of 
Keppler  and  the  ablest  of  his  associates,  but  the 
chief  cause  was  the  use  of  the  cartoon  as  a  weapon 
of  daily  journalism.  One  by  one  the  leading  news- 
papers of  the  land  have  added  a  cartoonist  to  their 
staffs,  until  the  journal  which  does  not  employ  one 
has  become  the  exception  to  the  general  rule.  Many 
of  them  publish  a  cartoon  daily,  on  the  leading  topic 
of  the  moment,  political  or  other,  and  the  inevitable 
consequence  is  that  the  freshness  is  taken  from  all 
subjects  for  such  treatment  long  before  the  weekly 
journal  gets  around  to  it.  In  some  respects  the 
daily  cartoon  is  a  departure  from  that  of  the  comic 
weeklies.  It  has  no  color  and  it  is  usually  confined 
to  a  few  figures.     It  attempts  nothing  so  elaborate 


CAMPAIGNS  AND  CARICATURE       157 

as  the  double  page  drawings  of  which  the  one 
reproduced  from  Gillam's  hand  is  a  sample.  The 
work  is  executed,  of  course,  in  great  haste  and  is 


PBOGRESSIVC  OEMOCRACY-PROSPCCT  OF  A  SMASH  UP. 


often  very  crude  in  drawing  and  finish,  but  con- 
sidering the  pressure  under  which  both  artist  and 
engraver  perform  their  tasks,  it  is  surprisingly  well 
done.  The  increasing  demand  for  men  who  can 
do  it  has  brought  forward  a  new  school  of  carica- 
turists whose  most  conspicuous  members  are  in 
artistic  ability,  fertility  of  imagination,  and  force- 
fulness  of  expression  the  equals  of  the  best  of  their 
predecessors.  The  influence  which  they  exert  upon 
public  opinion  is  incalculable.  They  have  largely 
superseded  the  editorial  page  of  the  newspaper  as 
the  moulder  of  political  thought.     Where  one  person 


158  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

reads  an  editorial  article,  a  thousand  look  at  the 
cartoon  on  the  first  page.  In  fact,  everyone  who 
takes  up  the  newspaper  sees  the  cartoon  and  is 
influenced  more  or  less  by  its  interpretation  of  an 
event,  or  of  an  individual  act.  Usually  the  treat- 
ment is  good-natured,  but  in  many  instances  it  is 
partisan  rather  than  judicial,  taking  the  political 
side  held  by  the  paper  in  which  it  appears. 


PART  III. 
INAUGURATION  SCENES  AND  INCIDENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

THE    FIRST    INAUGURATION 

From  the  first  the  American  people  elected  to 
make  of  the  inauguration  of  a  President  a  great 
national  festival.  They  did  this  spontaneously,  and 
in  quiet  disregard  of  all  efforts  to  prevent  them. 
Washington  desired  to  be  installed  as  first  President 
without  pomp  or  parade,  as  was  natural  in  a  man 
who  looked  upon  his  consent  to  serve  as  the  greatest 
sacrifice  of  personal  feelings  and  wishes  he  had  ever 
been  called  upon  to  make,  and  who  entered  upon  his 
task  with  a  most  unfeigned  reluctance,  and  with  a 
real  diffidence  for  which  he  did  not  expect  to 
receive  credit  from  the  world.  He  wrote  to  Lafay- 
ette, soon  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution:  "In 
answer  to  the  observations  you  make  on  the  proba- 
bility of  my  election  to  the  Presidency,  knowing  me 
as  you  do,  I  need  only  say,  that  it  has  no  en- 
ticing charms  and  no  fascinating  allurements  for 
me.  .  .  .  The  increasing  infirmities  of  nature  and 
the  growing  love  of  retirement  do  not  permit  me 
to  entertain  a  wish  beyond  that  of  living  and  dying 
an  honest  man  on  my  own  farm."  Writing  at  about 
the  same  time  on  the  same  subject  to  Hamilton,  he 
said: "  While  you  and  some  others  who  are  acquainted 
with  my  heart  would  acquit,  the  world  and  posterity 
might    possibly    accuse    me    of    inconsistency    and 

(161) 


162  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

ambition."  After  it  had  been  decided  that  he  must 
accept  the  oflSce,  he  wrote  to  Gen,  Knox: 

"In  confidence  I  tell  you,  (with  the  world  it  would 
obtain  little  credit),  that  my  movements  to  the 
chair  of  government  will  be  accompanied  by  feelings 
not  unlike  those  of  a  culprit,  who  is  going  to  the 
place  of  his  execution;  so  unwilling  am  I,  in  the 
evening  of  a  life  nearly  consumed  in  public  cares, 
to  quit  a  peaceful  abode  for  an  ocean  of  difficulties, 
without  that  competency  of  political  skill,  abilities, 
and  inclination,  which  are  necessary  to  manage  the 
helm." 

In  his  diary,  under  date  of  April  16th,  1789,  he 
wrote: 

"  About  ten  o'clock,  I  bade  adieu  to  Mount  Vernon, 
to  private  life,  and  to  domestic  felicity;  and,  with 
a  mind  oppressed  with  more  anxious  and  painful 
sensations  than  I  have  words  to  express,  set  out  for 
New  York  in  company  with  Mr.  Thomson  and 
Colonel  Humphreys,  with  the  best  disposition  to 
render  service  to  my  country  in  obedience  to  its 
call,  but  with  less  hope  of  answering  its  expecta- 
tions." 

Yet  his  journey  from  Mount  Vernon  to  New  York, 
which  he  wished  to  make  as  private  as  possible, 
was  converted  by  the  people,  overflowing  with 
veneration  and  gratitude,  into  an  unbroken  trium- 
phal progress,  which  culminated  in  a  series  of  public 
demonstrations  and  ceremonies  that  surpassed  any- 
thing of  the  kind  yet  seen  in  the  young  republic. 
When   only  a  few  miles  from   Mount  Vernon,   at 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         163 

Alexandria,  he  was  greeted  with  a  great  assemblage 
of  friends  and  neighbors  and  honored  with  a  public 
banquet.  In  responding  to  the  address  of  the 
Mayor,  Washington  said:  "All  that  now  remains 
for  me  is  to  commit  myself  and  you  to  the  care  of 
that  beneficent  Being  who,  on  a  former  occasion, 
happily  brought  us  together  after  a  long  and  dis- 
tressing separation.  Perhaps  the  same  gracious 
Providence  will  again  indulge  me.  But  words  fail 
me.  Unutterable  sensations  must  then  be  left  to 
more  expressive  silence,  while  from  an  aching  heart 
I  bid  all  my  affectionate  friends  and  kind  neighbors 
farewell."  From  Alexandria  to  Georgetown  he 
was  accompanied  by  neighbors  and  friends,  and  even 
by  children,  "a  company,"  says  a  contemporary 
writer  in  a  letter  published  in  "The  Pennsylvania 
Packet"  of  April  21st,  1789,  "which  did  more  honor 
to  a  man  than  all  the  triumphs  that  Rome  ever 
beheld;  and  the  person  honored  is  more  illustrious 
than  any  monarch  on  the  globe."  The  people  of 
Georgetown  escorted  him  north  till  he  was  met  by 
the  welcoming  people  of  Baltimore,  and  this  con- 
tinuous attendance  was  kept  up  till  he  reached  New 
York.  In  Baltimore,  Wilmington,  Philadelphia, 
great  preparations  had  been  made  to  receive  him. 
There  were  street  illuminations,  banquets,  military 
parades,  addresses  of  welcome,  and  great  outpour- 
ings of  people.  As  he  approached  Philadelphia, 
he  was  met  at  the  Pennsylvania  line  with  a  caval- 
cade of  soldiers  and  escorted  into  Chester.  In  re- 
suming his  journey  he  left  his  carriage  and  mounted 


164  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

a  white  horse,  upon  which,  in  the  midst  of  a  troop 
of  cavalry,  he  rode  into  Philadelphia,  passing  under 
triumphal  arches  decorated  with  laurel  and  ever- 
green and  between  interminable  lines  of  people  who 
walled  both  sides  of  the  line  of  march.  A  banquet 
with  two  hundred  and  fifty  guests  was  serve3.  At 
the  close  of  the  exercises  in  Philadelphia,  he  was 
escorted  by  the  city  troops  to  Trenton,  where  he 
was  again  met  by  military  and  civic  organizations 
and  honored  with  attentions  like  those  he  had 
received  at  other  points.  Through  Princeton  and 
Brunswick,  amid  unbroken  demonstrations  of  honor 
and  affection,  he  reached  Elizabethtown  Point,  where 
he  was  met  by  the  committees  of  Congress  and  went 
on  board  a  barge  which  had  been  built  especially  to 
convey  him  through  the  bay  to  New  York  city. 
It  had  been  launched  only  two  days  before  his 
arrival,  was  about  50  feet  long  and  was  rowed  by 
thirteen  masters  of  vessels  dressed  in  white  uniforms 
and  black  caps  ornamented  with  fringes.  Six 
other  barges,  with  members  of  the  committees  and 
distinguished  guests,  followed  the  President's  barge 
as  it  moved  slowly  forward  to  the  point  of  landing 
at  the  foot  of  Wall  street.  Dr.  James  Lloyd  Cogs- 
well, a  spectator  of  the  scene,  thus  described  it  in  a 
letter  written  on  the  evening  of  the  memorable  day: 
"From  the  Battery  to  the  Coffee  House,  where 
the  General  landed,  the  ships,  docks  and  houses 
were  crowded  with  people  as  thick  as  they  could 
stand.  The  guns  of  the  Battery  were  fired  as  soon 
as  the  General  passed,  and  all  the  people  upon  the 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         165 

Battery  gave  three  huzzas.  The  cheers  were  con- 
tinued along  from  the  Battery  unto  the  place  of 
landing  as  the  barge  passed.  I  was  on  board 
Captain  Woolsey's  ship,  which  lies  in  the  slip  by  the 
Coffee  House,  and  had  a  very  fine  prospect.  The 
successive  motion  of  the  hats  from  the  Battery  to 
the  Coffee  House  was  like  the  rolling  motion  of  the 
sea,  or  a  field  of  grain  moving  with  the  wind  when 
the  sun  is  frequently  intercepted  with  a  cloud." 

Washington  was  met  at  the  landing  by  Gov. 
Clinton,  and  invited  to  enter  a  carriage,  but  declined., 
preferring  to  walk  to  his  house  accompanied  by  the 
Governor.  Dr.  Cogswell  thus  describes  the  pro- 
cession : 

"The  procession  immediately  formed  and  pro- 
ceeded from  the  Coffee  House  into  Queen  street,  and 
thence  to  the  President's  house.  The  Light  In- 
fantry, Grenadiers  and  a  train  of  artillery  led  on  the 
procession.  The  officers  in  uniform,  not  on  duty, 
followed.  The  General  walked  after  them,  at  the 
right  hand  of  Gov.  Clinton.  Then  followed  the 
principal  officers  of  state,  members  of  Congress, 
clergy,  and  citizens.  The  General  was  dressed  in 
blue,  with  buff-colored  underclothes.  The  procession 
moved  very  slowly  and  with  great  solemnity.  The 
windows,  stoops,  and  streets  were  crowded;  the 
latter  so  closely  you  might  have  walked  on  people's 
heads  for  a  great  distance.  Notwithstanding  all 
the  exertions  of  the  guard  to  keep  the  crowd  off, 
they  were  so  wedged  in  by  Embree's  corner  (in 
Pearl  street)    that   they  could  not  move  for  some 


166  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

time.  The  General  was  obliged  to  wipe  his  eyes 
several  times  before  he  got  into  Queen  street. 
After  they  had  tarried  some  time  at  the  President's 
house,  he  returned  and  dined  with  Gov.  Clinton. 
...  It  is  now  half  after  nine  o'clock.  Since  I 
began  this  letter  I  had  a  call  to  visit  a  sick  person 
in  Beaver  street.  I  walked  up  Queen  and  Wall 
streets  and  round  by  the  new  buildings  through 
Hanover  square.  Every  house  is  illuminated  except 
those  of  the  Quakers.  The  appearance  is  bril- 
liant beyond  description." 

The  house  which  had  been  fitted  up  for  Washing- 
ton as  President  was  known  as  the  Franklin  House, 
was  owned  by  Samuel  Osgood,  and  stood  at  the 
junction  of  Cherry  and  Pearl  streets,  on  Franklin 
square.  It  was  taken  down  in  1856.  Gov.  Clin- 
ton's house  stood  in  Pearl  street  opposite  Cedar. 
Washington  himself,  on  the  evening  of  the  day,  thus 
recorded  his  emotions  in  his  diary: 

"  The  display  of  boats  which  attended  and  joined 
us  on  this  occasion,  some  with  vocal  and  some  with 
instrumental  music;  the  decorations  of  the  ships, 
the  roar  of  the  cannon,  and  the  loud  acclamations 
of  the  people,  which  rent  the  skies  as  I  walked  along 
the  streets,  filled  my  mind  with  sensations  as  painful 
(considering  the  reverse  of  this  scene,  which  may 
be  the  case  after  all  my  labors  to  do  good)  as  they 
are  pleasing." 

The  inauguration  occurred  on  April  30th.  For 
nearly  a  fortnight  crowds  had  been  pouring  into 
the  city  from  all  directions.     Taverns  and  boarding 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         167 

houses  were  thronged  with  guests,  and  every  private 
house  was  filled  with  them.  At  twelve  o'clock 
noon  the  procession  which  was  to  escort  the  Presi- 
dent to  Federal  Hall,  where  the  ceremonies  were  to 
take  place,  began  to  form  at  his  house.  It  was 
composed  of  a  troop  of  horse,  two  companies  of 
grenadiers,  a  company  of  light  infantry,  a  battalion, 
and  a  company  of  Scotch  Highlanders  in  full  uni- 
form, with  music  by  bagpipe.  Washington  rode 
in  a  state  coach,  drawn  by  four  horses.  The  mili- 
tary contingent  amounted  in  all  to  about  500  men. 
It  drew  up  about  200  yards  from  Federal  Hall,  which 
stood  in  Wall  street  at  the  head  of  Broad,  where  the 
sub-Treasury  building  now  stands,  and  Washington 
passed  through  its  two  lines  into  the  hall.  The 
building  in  which  the  inauguration  ceremonies  were 
held  had  formerly  been  the  city  hall,  built  in  1699.  It 
had  served  as  municipal  and  colonial  court  house, 
debtors'  and  county  jail,  and  Capitol  of  the  prov- 
ince. When  New  York  was  selected  in  1788  for 
the  meeting  of  the  new  Congress,  it  was  determined 
to  transform  this  building  into  a  Federal  Hall  as 
seat  of  the  new  government.  Wealthy  citizens 
advanced  $32,000  for  that  purpose,  and  the  work 
was  begun  in  October,  1788.  It  was  thrown  open 
for  inspection  shortly  before  the  inauguration. 
Among  its  changes  was  the  addition  of  a  grand 
balcony  at  the  second  story  in  front,  where  the 
inauguration  oath  was  to  be  administered.  An 
accurate  view  of  this  is  presented  in  the  cut  which 
is  reproduced  in  these  pages  from  "  Harper's  Weekly." 


168  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

To  this  balcony,  Washington,  after  meeting  the 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  in  the  cham- 
ber of  the  former,  was  escorted  by  the  Vice-Presi- 
dent, John  Adams,  and  followed  by  other  higher 
public  functionaries.  The  oath  of  office  was 
administered  by  Chancellor  Livingston.  Washington 
laid  his  hand  upon  the  Bible,  bowed,  and  said  with 
great  solemnity:  "I  swear,  so  help  me  God!" 
Bending  reverently  he  kissed  the  book.  Livingston 
stepped  forward,  raised  his  hand  and  said:  *'Long 
live  George  Washington,  President  of  the  United 
States!"  The  crowd  then  broke  into  cheers,  cannon 
boomed,  the  bells  of  the  city  rang,  and  Washington, 
accompanied  by  the  other  persons  on  the  bal- 
cony, proceeded  to  the  Senate  chamber,  where  he 
delivered  his  inaugural  address. 

Eliza  Morton  Quincy,  in  a  privately  printed 
memoir,  thus  describes  the  balcony  scene: 

"I  was  on  the  roof  of  the  first  house  in  Broad 
street,  which  belonged  to  Captain  Prince,  the  father 
of  one  of  my  schoolmates,  and  so  near  Washington 
that  I  could  almost  hear  him  speak.  The  windows 
and  roofs  of  the  houses  were  crowded,  and  in  the 
streets  the  throng  was  so  dense  that  it  seemed  as 
if  one  might  literally  walk  on  the  heads  of  the  people. 
The  balcony  of  the  Hail  was  in  full  view  of  this 
assembled  multitude.  In  the  center  of  it  was 
placed  a  table,  with  a  rich  covering  of  red  velvet;  and 
upon  this  a  crimson  velvet  cushion,  on  which  lay  a 
large  and  elegant  Bible.  This  was  all  the  para- 
phernalia for  this  august  scene.     All  eyes  were  fixed 


00  : 
<    d 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         171 

upon  the  balcony,  where,  at  the  appointed  hour, 
Washington  entered,  accompanied  by  the  Chancellor 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  by  John  x\dams,  Vice- 
President;  Gov.  Clinton,  and  many  other  distin- 
guished men.  To  the  great  body  of  the  people 
he  had  probably  never  been  seen  except  as  a  mili- 
tary hero.  The  first  in  war  was  now  to  be  the  first 
in  peace.  His  entrance  upon  the  balcony  was 
announced  by  universal  shouts  of  joy  and  welcome. 
He  was  dressed  in  a  suit  of  black  velvet,  and  his 
appearance  was  most  dignified  and  solemn.  Advanc- 
ing to  the  front  of  the  balcony,  he  laid  his  hand 
on  his  heart  and  bowed  several  times,  and  then 
retreated  to  an  arm-chair  near  the  table.  The  popu- 
lace appeared  to  understand  that  the  scene  had 
overcome  him,  and  were  at  once  hushed  into  pro- 
found silence." 

Other  spectators  do  not  agree  with  Mrs.  Quincy 
as  to  the  clothes  worn  by  Washington.  According 
to  Washington  Irving,  he  "was  clad  in  a  full  suit 
of  dark  brown  cloth,  of  American  manufacture, 
with  a  steel  hilted  dress  sword,  white  silk  stockings, 
and  silver  shoe  buckles.  His  hair  was  dressed  and 
powdered  in  the  fashion  of  the  day,  and  worn  in  a 
bag  and  solitaire."  Senator  Maclay  says  he  "was 
dressed  in  a  full  suit  of  dark  brown  cloth  manu- 
factured at  Hartford,  with  metal  buttons  with  an 
eagle  on  them."  Maclay,  who  heard  the  inaugu- 
ral address,  wrote: 

"This  great  man  was  agitated  and  embarrassed 
more  than  ever  he  was  by  the  leveled  cannon  or 


172  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

pointed  musket.  He  trembled,  and  several  times 
could  scarce  make  out  to  read,  though  it  must  be 
supposed  he  had  often  read  it  before.  He  put  part 
of  the  fingers  of  his  left  hand  into  the  side  of  what  I 
think  the  tailors  call  the  fall  of  the  breeches,  chang- 
ing the  paper  into  his  right  hand.  After  some  time 
he  then  did  the  same  thing  with  some  of  the  fingers 
of  his  right  hand.  When  he  came  to  the  words 
all  the  u'orld,  he  made  a  flourish  with  his  right  hand, 
which  left  rather  an  ungainly  impression.  I  sin- 
cerely, for  my  part,  wished  all  set  ceremony  in  the 
hands  of  the  dancing  masters,  and  that  this  first  of 
men  had  read  off  his  address  in  the  plainest  manner, 
without  ever  taking  his  eyes  from  the  paper,  for  I 
felt  hurt  that  he  was  not  first  in  everything." 

Fisher  Ames,  who  also  heard  him,  was  more 
deeply  impressed: 

"He  addressed  the  two  Houses  in  the  Senate- 
chamber;  it  was  a  very  touching  scene,  and  quite  of 
a  solemn  kind.  His  aspect  grave,  almost  to  sad- 
ness; his  modesty,  actually  shaking;  his  voice  deep, 
a  little  tremulous,  and  so  low  as  to  call  for  close 
attention,  added  to  the  series  of  objects  presented  to 
the  mind,  and  overwhelming  it,  produced  emotions 
of  the  most  affecting  kind  upon  the  members." 

After  the  address,  Washington  and  all  the  other 
officials  present  at  the  exercises  proceeded  on  foot, 
accompanied  by  the  same  military  procession,  to 
St.  Paul's  chapel,  where  religious  services  were  con- 
ducted by  the  Bishop  of  New  York.  Fisher  Ames 
wrote  in  regard  to  this  part  of  the  ceremonies: 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         173 

"I  was  present  in  the  pew  with  the  President, 
and  must  assure  you  that,  after  making  all  deduc- 
tions for  the  delusion  of  one's  fancy  in  regard  to 
characters,  I  still  think  of  him  with  more  veneration 
than  for  any  other  person.  Time  has  made  havoc 
upon  his  face.  That,  and  many  other  circumstances 
not  to  be  reasoned  about,  conspired  to  keep  up  the 
awe  I  brought  with  me." 


CHAPTER  II. 

JOHN    ADAMS's    GLOOMY    ENTRANCE 

So  long  as  Washington  was  on  the  scene  he  domi- 
nated it  completely.  He  came  much  nearer  to 
having  his  own  way  at  his  second  inauguration,  in 
Philadelphia,  than  he  had  been  able  to  at  his  first, 
in  New  York,  chiefly  through  the  desire  of  his 
political  rivals  to  prevent  a  fresh  demonstration  of 
the  popular  adoration  of  him.  Jefferson's  immortal 
devotion  to  republican  simplicity  had  its  origin  in 
this  desire;  for  he  favored  the  abolition  of  all  public 
exercises  at  the  second  inauguration,  and  wished 
to  have  the  oath  of  office  administered  to  Washington 
privately  at  his  house,  a  certificate  of  it  to  be 
deposited  in  the  State  department.  Hamilton  took 
the  same  view,  but  other  members  of  the  Cabinet 
favored  exercises  in  the  open  Senate-chamber,  and 
their  opinion  prevailed.  There  was  as  large  an 
attendance  as  the  hall  would  hold,  but  no  parade 
or  other  popular  demonstration.  The  people  went 
on  worshipping  their  hero  with  undiminished  fervor, 
however.  They  celebrated  his  birthday  with  such 
honors,  and  in  so  general  a  way,  that  his  rivals  were 
more  distressed  than  ever,  and  began  to  see  in  this 
infatuation  a  menace  to  the  republic,  a  threat  of 
monarchy. 

The  chief  sufferer  from  this  condition  of  affairs 

(174) 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         175 

was  John  Adams  when  the  time  came  to  inaugurate 
him  as  Washington's  successor.  He  is  the  only 
President  we  have  had,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  Mr.  Van  Buren,  who  can  be  said  to  have  played 
a  secondary  part  at  his  own  inauguration.  The 
people  had  no  eyes  for  him;  they  saw  only  the 
stately  figure  of  Washington  passing  forever  from 
the  scene.  The  ceremonies  were  held  in  Inde- 
pendence Hall,  Philadelphia,  in  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. Washington  drove  to  the  hall  in  his 
coach-and-four,  and  was  lustily  cheered  both  outside 
and  inside  the  building.  He  passed  quickly  to  his 
seat,  as  if  eager  to  stop  the  applause.  Adams 
entered  a  few  minutes  later,  dressed  in  a  light  drab 
suit,  and  passed  slowly  down  the  aisle,  bowing  in 
response  to  the  respectful  applause  which  greeted 
him.  He  took  the  oath,  and  then  delivered  his 
inaugural  address.  Writing  to  his  wife  on  the 
following  day,  Mr.  Adams  thus  described  the  scene 
in  which,  as  he  was  fully  conscious,  he  was  playing 
only  a  secondary  part: 

"Your  dearest  friend  never  had  a  more  trying 
day  than  yesterday.  A  solemn  scene  it  was  indeed; 
and  it  was  made  more  affecting  to  me  by  the  presence 
of  the  General,  whose  countenance  was  as  serene 
and  unclouded  as  the  day.  He  seemed  to  me  to 
enjoy  a  triumph  over  me.  Methought  I  heard  him 
say  'Ay!  I  am  fairly  out,  and  you  fairly  in.  See 
which  of  us  will  be  happiest.'  When  the  ceremony  was 
over,  he  came  and  made  me  a  visit,  and  cordially 


176  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

congratulated  me,  and  wished  my  administration 
might  be  happy,  successful  and  honorable. 

"In  the  chamber  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
was  a  multitude  as  great  as  the  space  could  contain, 
and  I  believe  scarcely  a  dry  eye  but  Washington's. 
The  sight  of  the  sun  setting  full  orbed,  and  another 
rising,  though  less  splendid,  was  a  novelty.  I  had 
not  slept  well  the  night  before  and  did  not  sleep  well 
the  night  after.  I  was  unwell  and  did  not  know 
whether  I  should  get  through  or  not.  I  did,  how- 
ever. How  the  business  was  received,  I  know  not, 
only  I  have  been  told  that  Mason,  the  treaty  pub- 
lisher, said  we  should  lose  nothing  by  the  change, 
for  he  had  never  heard  such  a  speech  in  public  in  his 
life.  All  agree  that,  taken  together,  it  was  the 
sublimest  thing  ever  exhibited  in  America." 

Four  days  later,  the  new  President  was  still 
dwelling  upon  the  sadness  and  gloom  of  the  occasion, 
saying  in  another  letter  to  his  wife: 

"Mrs.  Gushing  will  call  upon  you,  and  give  you 
an  account  of  what  they  call  the  inauguration.  It 
is  the  general  report  that  there  has  been  more 
weeping  than  there  has  ever  been  at  the  representa- 
tion of  any  tragedy.  But  whether  it  was  from  grief 
or  joy,  whether  from  the  loss  of  their  beloved  Presi- 
dent, or  from  the  accession  of  an  unbeloved  one,  or 
from  the  pleasure  of  exchanging  Presidents  without 
tumult,  or  from  the  novelty  of  the  thing,  or  from 
the  sublimity  of  it  arising  out  of  the  multitude 
present,  or  whatever  other  cause,  I  know  not.  One 
thing  I  know.     I  am  a  being  of  too  much  sensibility 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         177 

to  act  any  part  well  in  such  an  exhibition.  Perhaps 
there  is  little  danger  of  my  having  such  another 
scene  to  feel  or  behold." 

Doubtless  the  real  cause  for  his  depression  was 
the  solitude  in  which  he  found  himself  as  revealed 
in  the  following  passage  from  the  same  letter: 

"The  stillness  and  silence  astonishes  me.  Every- 
body talks  of  the  tears,  the  full  eyes,  the  streaming 
eyes,  the  trickling  eyes,  etc.,  but  all  is  enigma  beyond. 
No  one  descends  to  particulars  to  say  why  or  where- 
fore; I  am,  therefore,  left  to  suppose  that  it  is  all 
grief  for  the  loss  of  their  beloved.  Two  or  three 
persons  have  ventured  to  whisper  in  my  ear  that  my 
speech  made  an  agreeable  impression." 

This  was  written  on  March  9th.  The  gloom  and 
solitude  were  still  unbroken  a  full  week  later,  for 
on  March  17th  he  again  wrote: 

"It  would  have  given  me  great  pleasure  to  have 
had  some  of  my  family  present  at  my  inauguration, 
which  was  the  most  affecting  and  overpowering 
scene  I  ever  acted  in.  I  was  very  unwell,  had  no 
sleep  the  night  before,  and  really  did  not  know  but 
I  should  have  fainted  in  the  presence  of  the  world, 
I  was  in  great  doubt  whether  to  say  anything  or  not 
besides  repeating  the  oath.  And  now  the  world 
is  as  silent  as  the  grave.  All  the  Federalists  seem 
to  be  afraid  to  approve  anybody  but  Washington. 
The  Jacobin  papers  damn  with  faint  praise,  and 
undermine  with  misrepresentation  and  insinuation. 
If  the  Federalists  go  to  playing  pranks,  I  will  resign 
the   office   and   let   Jefferson   lead   them    to   peace, 


178  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

wealth  and  power  if  he  will.  From  the  situation 
where  I  now  am,  I  see  a  scene  of  ambition  beyond  all 
my  former  suspicion  or  imagination;  an  emulation 
which  will  turn  our  government  topsy-turvy.  Jeal- 
ousies and  rivalries  have  been  my  theme,  and  checks 
and  balances  as  their  antidotes  till  I  am  ashamed 
to  repeat  the  words;  but  they  never  stared  me  in 
the  face  in  such  horrid  forms  as  at  present." 

To  the  account  which  Mr.  Adams  gave  of  the 
inauguration  scene  should  be  added  the  striking 
picture  of  what  followed  when  the  ceremonies  were 
ended.  William  A.  Duer,  who  was  President  of 
Columbia  College  between  1829  and  1842,  says,  in 
his  personal  recollections,  that,  when  at  the  close 
Washington  moved  toward  the  door,  there  was  a 
precipitate  rush  from  the  gallery  and  corridors  for 
the  street,  and  he  found  a  great  throng  awaiting  him 
as  he  emerged  from  the  door.  They  cheered  him, 
and  he  waved  his  hat  to  them,  his  countenance 
radiant  with  benignity,  his  gray  hair  streaming  in 
the  wind.  He  walked  to  his  house,  followed  by 
the  crowd,  and  on  reaching  it  turned  about  for  a  final 
greeting.  His  countenance  assumed  a  grave  and 
almost  melancholy  expression,  his  eyes  were  bathed 
in  tears,  and  only  by  gestures  could  he  indicate  his 
thanks  and  convey  his  farewell  blessing. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   TRUTH    ABOUT   JEFFERSONL\N    SIMPLICITY 

No  inauguration  myth  has  been  more  tenacious 
of  life  than  that  which  pictured  Jefferson,  attired  as 
a  plain  citizen,  riding  on  horseback  to  the  Capitol, 
hitching  his  horse  to  the  palings,  and  walking, 
unattended,  into  the  Senate-chamber  to  take  the  oath 
as  President.  To  have  done  this  would  have  been 
in  accordance  with  his  previous  utterances,  for  he 
had  strongly  condemned  as  savoring  of  monarchy 
all  public  ceremony  at  the  swearing  in  of  a  President. 
When  the  time  for  his  own  inauguration  arrived, 
however,  the  case  seems  to  have  looked  different  to 
him.  Whether  it  was  because  he  was  to  be  the  first 
President  inaugurated  at  the  new  Capitol,  or  because 
of  an  unwillingness  to  disappoint  the  large  numbers 
of  his  friends  and  partisans  who  had  assembled  to 
honor  him,  is  not  clear;  but  the  fact  is  that  he  did 
permit  a  considerable  display  at  the  ceremonies. 
He  was  met  at  the  door  of  his  boarding  house,  which 
was  only  a  stone's  throw  from  the  Capitol,  by  a 
militia  artillery  company  and  a  procession  of  citizens, 
and,  escorted  by  these,  he  went  on  foot  to  the  Capitol. 
The  horseback  story,  or  "fake,"  as  it  would  be 
denominated  in  modern  journalism,  was  the  invention 
of  an  Englishman  named  John  Davis,  who  put  it  in 
a  book  of  American  travels  which  he  published  in 

(179) 


180  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

London  two  years  later.  In  order  to  give  it  an  air 
of  veracity,  Davis  declared  that  he  was  present  at 
the  inauguration,  which  was  not  true.  A  veracious 
account  of  the  ceremonies  was  sent  to  England  by 
Edward  Thornton,  who  was  then  in  charge  of  the 
British  legation  at  Washington.  He  enclosed  a 
copy  of  the  new  President's  inaugural  address,  and, 
after  making  some  comments  upon  its  democratic 
tendencies,  went  on  to  say: 

*'The  same  republican  spirit  which  runs  through 
this  performance,  and  which  in  many  passages  dis- 
covers some  bitterness  through  all  the  sentiments  of 
conciliation  and  philanthropy  with  which  it  is 
overcharged,  Mr.  Jefferson  affected  to  display  in 
performing  the  customary  ceremonies.  He  came 
from  his  own  lodgings  to  the  house  where  the 
Congress  convenes,  and  which  goes  by  the  name  of 
the  Capitol,  on  foot,  in  his  ordinary  dress,  escorted 
by  a  body  of  militia  artillery  from  the  neighboring 
State,  and  accompanied  by  the  Secretaries  of  the 
Navy  and  the  Treasury,  and  a  number  of  his  political 
friends  in  the  House  of  Representatives.  He  was 
received  by  Mr,  Burr,  the  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States,  who  arrived  a  day  or  two  ago  at 
the  seat  of  government,  and  who  was  previously 
admitted  this  morning  to  the  chair  of  the  Senate; 
and  was  afterward  complimented  at  his  own  lodg- 
ings by  the  very  few  foreign  agents  who  reside  at 
this  place,  by  the  members  of  Congress,  and  other 
public  oflficials." 

The  new  Capitol  was  then  in  process  of  construe- 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS  181 

tion.  Only  the  north  wing  was  so  far  completed 
as  to  be  occupied  by  the  Senate,  the  courts  and  the 
small  library  of  Congress.  To  the  north  wing 
Jefferson,  accompanied  by  a  few  officials  and  his 
friends,  proceeded.  On  reaching  the  Senate-cham- 
ber in  which  he  was  to  be  inaugurated,  Jefferson 
became  a  member  of  one  of  the  most  striking  groups 
ever  gathered  in  a  public  place.  On  one  side  of  him 
stood  John  Marshall,  as  Chief  Justice  to  administer 
the  oath,  and  on  the  other  Aaron  Burr,  who  was 
to  be  sworn  in  as  Vice-President.  As  described  by 
his  contemporaries,  Jefferson  was  a  remarkable  per- 
sonage. He  was  very  tall,  six  feet  two  and  a  half 
inches  in  height,  with  a  sandy  complexion,  awkward 
manners,  and  shy  and  cold  in  bearing.  Senator 
Maclay  wrote  this  description  of  him  as  he  appeared 
in  1790: 

"Jefferson  is  a  slender  man,  has  rather  the  air  of 
stiffness  in  his  manner.  His  clothes  seem  too  small 
for  him.  He  sits  in  a  lounging  manner,  on  one  hip 
commonly,  and  with  one  of  his  shoulders  elevated 
much  above  the  other.  His  face  has  a  sunny  aspect. 
His  whole  figure  has  a  loose,  shackling  air.  He  had 
a  rambling,  vacant  look,  and  nothing  of  that  firm, 
collected  deportment  which  I  expected  would  dig- 
nify the  presence  of  a  secretary  or  minister.  I 
looked  for  gravity,  but  a  laxity  of  manner  seemed 
shed  about  him.  He  spoke  almost  without  ceasing; 
but  even  his  discourse  partook  of  his  personal 
demeanor.     It  was  loose  and  rambling;  and  yet  he 


182  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

scattered  information  wherever  he  went,  and  some 
even  brilliant  sentiments  sparkled  from  him." 

Joseph  Story,  writing  of  John  Marshall  in  1808, 
thus  pictured  him: 

"A  tall,  slender  figure,  not  graceful  or  imposing, 
but  erect  and  steady.  His  hair  is  black,  his  eyes 
small  and  twinkling,  his  forehead  rather  low;  but 
his  features  are  in  general  harmonious.  His  manners 
are  plain  yet  dignified,  and  an  unaffected  modesty 
diffuses  itself  through  all  his  actions.  His  dress  is 
very  simple,  yet  neat;  his  language  chaste, but  hardly 
elegant;  it  does  not  flow  rapidly,  but  it  seldom  wants 
precision.  In  conversation  he  is  quite  familiar,  but 
is  occasionally  embarrassed  by  a  hesitancy  and 
drawling.  ...  I  love  his  laugh, — it  is  too  hearty 
for  an  intriguer;  and  his  good  temper  and  unwearied 
patience  are  equally  agreeable  on  the  bench  and  in 
the  study." 

Burr,  the  third  personage  in  this  group,  was 
rather  small  in  stature,  but  dignified  and  easy  in 
manners  and  dressed  with  aristocratic  care.  He 
was,  says  Henry  Adams,  in  his  "History  of  the 
United  States,"  to  which  I  am  indebted  for  most 
of  the  material  of  this  chapter,  "An  aristocrat 
imbued  in  the  morality  of  Lord  Chesterfield  and 
Napoleon  Bonaparte.  Colonel  Burr  was  the  chosen 
head  of  Northern  democracy,  idol  of  the  wards 
of  New  York  city,  and  aspirant  to  the  highest 
oflBces  he  could  reach  by  means  legal  or  beyond  the 
law;  for,  as  he  pleased  himself  with  saying,  after  the 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         183 

manner  of  the  First  Consul  of  the  French  Republic, 
*  Great  souls  care  little  for  small  morals'." 

The  three  men  were  agreed  in  one  respect:  they 
distrusted  and  disliked  one  another  thoroughly. 
Jefferson  both  feared  and  hated  Marshall,  saying 
of  him  that  he  had  a  mind  of  that  gloomy  malignity 
which  would  never  let  him  forego  the  opportunity 
of  satiating  it  on  a  victim.  Marshall  said  of  Jeffer- 
son, shortly  before  the  inauguration,  that  by  weak- 
ening the  office  of  President  he  would  increase  his 
personal  power,  and  that  his  letters  had  shown  that 
his  morals  could  not  be  pure.  Both  Jefferson  and 
Marshall  looked  upon  Burr  as  a  political  and  social 
adventurer  who  was  living  up  to  his  own  creed, 
"  Great  souls  care  little  for  small  morals." 

The  outgoing  President,  Mr.  Adams,  was  not 
present  at  the  exercises;  but  he  undoubtedly  took 
a  grim  pleasure  in  the  presence  of  Marshall,  whom 
he  had  made  Chief  Justice,  greatly  to  the  wrath  of 
Jefferson,  only  a  few  weeks  before.  After  the  cere- 
monies the  new  President  proceeded  to  the  Execu- 
tive mansion,  or  *'The  Palace,"  as  it  was  then 
styled,  in  the  same  manner  as  he  had  gone  to  the 
Capitol. 


CHAPTER  IV 

INAUGURATION    CLOTHES    AND    CUSTOMS 

Washington  set  the  example,  which  has  been  fol- 
lowed at  frequent  intervals  by  new  Presidents  even 
to  our  day,  of  wearing  at  the  first  inauguration 
ceremonies  clothing  of  American  manufacture.  He 
was  dressed  in  a  suit  of  dark  cloth  made  at  Hartford. 
I  have  been  able  to  find  no  mention  of  the  nationality 
of  the  "light  drab  suit"  which  John  Adams  wore. 
Jefferson  was  inaugurated  in  his  "every-day  clothes," 
which  may  or  may  not  have  been  exclusively 
American;  but  before  the  end  of  his  service  as 
President  he  appeared  at  his  New  Year  reception 
dressed  in  an  entire  suit  of  homespun.  Madison 
carried  the  matter  a  step  further;  for,  as  he  passed 
down  the  aisle  of  the  House  of  Representatives  to 
be  inaugurated,  he  was  spoken  of  as  a  "walking 
argument  in  favor  of  the  encouragement  of  native 
wool."  His  coat  had  been  made  on  the  farm  of 
Colonel  Humphreys,  and  his  waistcoat  and  small- 
clothes on  that  of  Chancellor  Livingston,  all  from 
the  wool  of  merino  sheep  raised  in  the  country. 
John  Quincy  Adams  says  in  his  Diary  that  the  house 
was  very  much  crowded,  and  that  its  appearance 
was  magnificent,  but  that  Mr.  Madison  read  his 
address  in  a  tone  so  low  that  it  could  not  be  heard. 
Contemporary  descriptions  of  Madison  picture  him 

(184) 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS  1S5 

as  a  small,  modest  and  jovial  man.  Washington 
Irving  wrote  of  him  in  1812,  at  the  time  of  his  second 
election  to  the  Presidency:  "As  to  Jemmy  Madison, 
— oh,  poor  Jemmy! — he  is  but  a  withered  little 
apple-john." 

Grigsby,  in  his  "Convention  of  1776,"  says:  "In 
his  dress  he  was  not  at  all  eccentric  or  given  to 
dandyism,  but  always  appeared  neat  and  genteel, 
and  in  the  costume  of  a  well-bred  and  tasty  old- 
school  gentleman.  I  have  heard  in  early  life  he 
sometimes  wore  light-colored  clothes;  but  from  the 
time  I  first  knew  him  .  ,  .  never  any  other  color 
than  black,  his  coat  being  cut  in  what  is  termed 
dress-fashion;  his  breeches  short,  with  buckles  at 
the  knees,  black  silk  stockings,  and  shoes  with  strings 
or  long  fair  top-boots  when  out  in  cold  weather,  or 
when  he  rode  on  horse-back,  of  which  he  was  fond. 
.  .  .  He  wore  powder  on  his  hair,  which  was  dressed 
full  over  the  ears,  tied  behind,  and  brought  to  a 
point  above  the  forehead,  to  cover  in  some  degree 
his  baldness,  as  may  be  noticed  in  all  the  likenesses 
taken  of  him." 

Sir  Augustus  Foster,  whom  President  Madison 
sent  out  of  the  country  in  1812,  when  the  war  with 
England  came  on,  wrote  of  him:  "I  thought  Mr. 
Jefferson  more  of  a  statesman  and  man  of  the  world 
than  Mr.  Madison,  who  was  rather  too  much  the 
disputatious  pleader;  yet  the  latter  was  better 
informed,  and,  moreover,  a  social,  jovial,  and  good- 
humored  companion,  full  of  anecdote,  sometimes 
rather  of  a  loose  description,  but  oftener  of  a  political 


186  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

and  historical  interest.  He  was  a  little  man,  with 
small  features,  rather  weazened  when  I  saw  him, 
but  occasionally  lit  up  with  a  good-natured  smile. 
He  wore  a  black  coat,  stockings  with  shoes  buckled, 
and  had  his  hair  powdered,  with  a  tail." 

American  wool  seems,  therefore,  to  have  made  its 
first  appearance  as  a  "walking  argument"  under 
favorable  conditions.  John  Quincy  Adams,  accord- 
ing to  his  biographer,  Mr.  Morse,  "was  dressed 
in  a  black  suit  of  which  all  the  materials  were  of 
American  manufacture." 

I  can  find  no  mention  anywhere  of  the  clothes 
worn  by  James  Monroe  when  he  was  inaugurated 
in  1817.  The  occasion  was  notable  chiefly  for  being 
the  first  one  held  out  of  doors  since  the  seat  of 
government  had  been  moved  to  Washington.  There 
had  been  out-of-door  exercises  when  Washington 
was  installed  in  New  York,  but  all  his  successors 
till  Monroe  had  been  inaugurated  within  doors. 
It  is  said  by  some  authorities  that  the  proposal  to 
change  to  the  open  air  in  1817  was  the  outcome  of  a 
long  and  bitter  wrangle  between  the  two  Houses  as 
to  the  division  of  seats  in  the  House  at  the  cere- 
monies. Agreement  being  apparently  impossible, 
some  one  suggested  that  by  going  out  of  doors,  room 
enough  could  be  found  for  everybody,  and  the  idea 
was  acted  upon  joyfully.  An  elevated  platform  was 
erected  for  the  occasion  under  the  unfinished  portico 
of  the  Capitol,  and  from  this  Monroe  delivered  his 
inaugural  address  to  the  largest  assemblage  that  had 
yet  been  gathered  there.     The  day  was  balmy  and 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         187 

beautiful.  The  "National  Intelligencer"  said  of 
the  assemblage:  "Such  a  concourse  was  never  before 
seen  in  Washington;  the  number  of  persons  present 
has  actually  been  estimated  at  from  five  to  eight 
thousand.  Yet  notwithstanding  the  magnitude  of 
the  assemblage,  we  have  heard  of  no  accident." 
There  were  no  outdoor  exercises  at  Monroe's  second 
inauguration,  the  weather  being  stormy,  rain  and 
snow  falling  throughout  the  day.  The  attendance 
on  this  occasion  did  not  exceed  two  thousand  per- 
sons. John  Quincy  Adams  was  also  inaugurated 
indoors  four  years  later,  and  it  was  not  till  the 
advent  of  General  Jackson,  in  1829,  that  the  outdoor 
exercises  became  the  established  custom. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   JACKSON    INVASION 

Jackson's  entry  upon  the  Presidency  has  been 
likened  repeatedly  to  the  descent  of  the  barbarians 
upon  Rome.  It  was  accompanied  with  a  huge 
multitude  of  people  from  all  parts  of  the  land,  and 
by  an  amount  of  uproar  altogether  unprecedented. 
Webster  wrote  from  the  capital,  several  days  before 
the  inauguration,  that  the  city  was  full  of  speculation 
and  speculators,  there  being  a  great  multitude,  too 
many  to  be  fed  without  a  miracle,  and  all  hungry  for 
office.  "I  never  saw  such  a  crowd  before,"  he 
added.  "Persons  have  come  five  hundred  miles  to 
see  General  Jackson,  and  they  really  seem  to  think 
that  the  country  is  rescued  from  some  dreadful 
danger."  They  surged  through  the  streets  shout- 
ing, "Hurrah  for  Jackson!"  They  swarmed  about 
Gadsby's  tavern,  where  the  General  lodged,  in 
such  masses  as  completely  to  hem  it  in  and  make 
access  to  his  presence  nearly  impossible.  A  con- 
temporary writer,  Arthur  J.  Stansbury,  thus 
described  the  situation: 

"No  one  who  was  at  Washington  at  the  time  of 
General  Jackson's  inauguration  is  likely  to  forget 
that  period  to  the  day  of  his  death.  To  us,  who  had 
witnessed  the  quiet  and  orderly  period  of  the  Adams 
administration,  it  seemed  as  if  half  the  nation  had 

(188) 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS  189 

rushed  at  once  into  the  capital.  It  was  like  the 
inundation  of  the  northern  barbarians  into  Rome, 
save  that  the  tumultuous  tide  came  in  from  a  differ- 
ent point  of  the  compass.  The  West  and  the  South 
seemed  to  have  precipitated  themselves  upon  the 
North  and  overwhelmed  it.  On  that  memorable 
occasion  you  might  tell  a  'Jackson  man'  almost  as 
far  as  you  could  see  him.  Their  every  motion  seemed 
to  cry  out  'Victory!'  Strange  faces  filled  every 
public  place,  and  every  face  seemed  to  bear  defiance 
on  its  brow.  It  appeared  to  me  that  every  Jackson 
editor  in  the  country  was  on  the  spot.  They 
swarmed  especially  in  the  lobbies  of  the  House,  an 
expectant  host,  a  sort  of  Praetorian  band,  which, 
having  borne  in  upon  their  shields  their  idolized 
leader,  claimed  the  reward  of  the  hard-fought  contest. 
His  quarters  were  assailed,  surrounded,  hemmed 
in,  so  that  it  was  an  achievement  to  get  into 
his  presence.  On  the  morning  of  the  inauguration, 
the  vicinity  of  the  Capitol  was  like  a  great,  agitated 
sea;  every  avenue  to  the  fateful  spot  was  blocked 
up  with  people,  insomuch  that  the  legitimate  pro- 
cession which  accompanied  the  President-elect  could 
scarce  make  its  way  to  the  eastern  portico,  where 
the  ceremony  was  to  be  performed.  To  repress  the 
crowd  in  front,  a  ship's  cable  was  stretched  across 
about  two-thirds  of  the  way  up  the  long  flight  of 
steps  by  which  the  Capitol  is  approached  on  that 
side,  but  it  seemed  at  times  as  if  even  this  would 
scarce  prove  sufficient  to  restrain  the  eagerness  of 
the  multitude,  every  man  of  whom  seemed  bent  on 


190  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

the  glory  of  shaking  the  President's  hand.  Never 
can  I  forget  the  spectacle  which  presented  itself  on 
every  side,  nor  the  electrifying  moment  when  the 
eager,  expectant  eyes  of  that  vast  and  motley  multi- 
tude caught  sight  of  the  tall  and  imposing  form  of 
their  adored  leader,  as  he  came  forth  between  the 
columns  of  the  portico ;  the  color  of  the  whole  mass 
changed  as  if  by  a  miracle;  all  hats  were  off  at  once, 
and  the  dark  tint  which  usually  pervades  a  mixed 
map  of  men  was  turned,  as  by  a  magic  wand,  into 
the  bright  hue  of  ten  thousand  upturned  and 
exultant  human  faces,  radiant  with  sudden  joy.  The 
peal  of  shouting  that  arose  rent  the  air,  and  seemed 
to  shake  the  very  ground.  But  when  the  Chief 
Justice  took  his  place  and  commenced  the  brief 
ceremony  of  administering  the  oath  of  office,  it 
quickly  sank  into  comparative  silence;  and  as  the 
new  President  proceeded  to  read  his  inaugural 
address,  the  stillness  gradually  increased;  but  all 
efforts  to  hear  him,  beyond  the  brief  space  immedi- 
ately around,  were  utterly  vain." 

An  eyewitness,  who  took  a  somewhat  jocose 
view  of  the  day's  events,  wrote  that  the  most 
remarkable  feature  about  Jackson  as  he  marched 
down  the  aisle  of  the  Senate  with  a  quick,  large  step, 
as  though  he  proposed  to  storm  the  Capitol,  was  his 
double  pair  of  spectacles.  He  habitually  wore  two 
pairs,  one  for  reading  and  the  other  for  seeing  at  a 
distance,  the  pair  not  in  use  being  placed  across 
the  top  of  his  head.  On  this  occasion,  says  the 
eyewitness,  the  pair  on  his  head  reflected  the  light; 


THE    HARRISON   TIPPECANOE    INAUGURATION    PARADE. 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS  193 

and  some  of  the  rural  admirers  of  the  old  hero  were 
firmly  persuaded  that  they  were  two  plates  of  metal 
let  into  his  head  to  close  up  holes  made  by  British 
bullets. 

The  ceremony  ended,  the  General  mounted  his 
horse  to  proceed  to  the  White  House,  and  the  whole 
crowd  follow^ed  him.  "The  President,"  says  a 
contemporary  writer,  "was  literally  pursued  by  a 
motley  concourse  of  people,  riding,  running  helter- 
skelter,  striving  who  should  first  gain  admittance 
into  the  Executive  mansion,  where  it  was  understood 
that  refreshments  were  to  be  distributed."  An 
abundance  of  refreshments  had  been  provided, 
including  many  barrels  of  orange  punch.  As  the 
waiters  opened  the  doors  to  bring  out  the  punch 
in  pails,  the  crowd  rushed  in  upon  them,  upsetting 
the  pails  and  breaking  the  glasses.  Inside  the 
house  the  crush  was  so  great  that  distribution  of 
refreshments  was  impossible,  and  tubs, of  orange 
punch  were  set  out  in  the  grounds  to  entice  people 
from  the  rooms.  Jackson  himself  was  so  pressed 
against  the  wall  of  the  reception-room  that  he  was 
in  danger  of  injury,  and  was  protected  by  a  number 
of  men  linking  arms  and  forming  a  barrier  against 
the  crowd.  Men  with  boots  heavy  with  mud  stood 
on  the  satin-covered  chairs  and  sofas  in  their  eager- 
ness to  get  a  view  of  the  hero.  Judge  Story  wrote 
that  the  crowd  contained  all  sorts  of  people,  from 
the  highest  and  most  polished  down  to  the  most 
vulgar  and  gross  in  the  nation.  "I  never  saw  such 
a  mixture,"  he  added.     "The  reign  of  King    Mob 


194  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

seemed  triumphant.  I  was  glad  to  escape  from  the 
scene  as  soon  as  possible." 

Jackson's  second  inauguration  was  in  marked 
contrast  to  the  first.  In  accordance  with  an 
unbroken  line  of  precedents  since  Washington's  day, 
these  second- term  exercises  were  brief  and  simple. 
They  were  held  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  in 
the  presence  of  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  and  the 
assembled  dignitaries  of  the  home  and  foreign 
governments.  Jackson's  personal  appearance  at  this 
time  is  graphically  described  by  Schouler,  in  his 
"History  of  the  United  States": 

"His  modest  but  distinguished  mien  prepossessed 
all  hearts  in  his  favor.  Both  Houses  of  Congress 
received  him  with  every  token  of  respect.  Among 
foreign  Ministers,  resplendent  in  gold  lace,  and 
oflficers  in  their  uniforms,  he  stood  contrasted  in 
plain  black  suit  with  not  a  single  decoration:  an 
elderly  man,  tall,  spare  and  bony,  and  by  no  means 
robust  in  aspect.  His  dark  blue  eyes  peered  out 
searchingly  from  beneath  heavy  eyebrows  and  a 
wrinkled  forehead,  high  but  narrow;  his  firm-set 
mouth  and  chin  worked  almost  convulsively  with 
the  play  of  his  emotions.  His  thick  hair,  bristling 
stiffly  up  in  front,  was  by  this  time  perfectly  white, 
and,  being  brushed  upward  and  back  from  the  brow, 
gave  to  his  long  and  beardless  face  a  delicate  look, 
almost  womanly  in  repose,  which  could  not  be  for- 
gotten. He  was  dressed  in  the  plain,  civilian  suit 
of  the  period,  with  watch-seal  dangling  from  the 
fob,    a   shirt   slightly   ruffled,    and   starched    collar- 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         195 

points   standing   sentinel   on   the   chin,    which   rose 
resolute  from  the  constraint  of  a  stiff  black  stock." 


CHAPTER  VI 

UNIQUE    DISTINCTION    OF    THE    ADAMSES 

Neither  of  the  two  Adamses  who  filled  the  Presi- 
dency attended  the  inauguration  ceremonies  of  his 
successor.  No  other  President  that  the  country  has 
had,  with  the  exception  of  Andrew  Johnson,  has 
this  distinction,  and  there  were  special  reasons  in 
Johnson's  case.  Col.  A.  K.  McClure  states  these 
as  follows:  "Grant  and  Johnson  had  an  acrimonious 
dispute  when  Grant,  as  Secretary  of  War,  ad  interim, 
admitted  Stanton  back  to  the  office  after  the  Senate 
had  refused  to  approve  his  removal  by  the  President, 
and  from  that  time  Grant  and  Johnson  never  met  or 
exchanged  courtesies  on  any  other  than  official 
occasions,  where  the  necessity  for  it  was  imperative. 
When  the  arrangements  were  about  to  be  made  for 
the  inauguration  of  Grant,  he  peremptorily  refused 
to  permit  President  Johnson  to  accompany  him  in 
the  carriage  to  the  Capitol  for  the  inauguration 
ceremonies,  and  Johnson  did  not  make  his  appear- 
ance on  that  occasion."  No  excuse  or  defence  of 
John  Adams's  conduct  in  refusing  to  attend  the 
inauguration  of  Jefferson  has  been  advanced.  His 
descendant,  Henry  Adams,  in  his  "History  of  the 
United  States,"  makes  a  tentative  effort  to  excuse 
him  by  saying:  "The  retiring  President  was  not 
present    at    the    installation    of    his    successor.     In 

(196) 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         197 

Jefferson's  eyes  a  revolution  had  taken  place  as  vast 
as  that  of  1776;  and  if  this  was  his  belief,  perhaps 
the  late  President  was  wise  to  retire  from  a  stage 
where  everything  was  arranged  to  point  a  censure 
upon  his  principles,  and  where  he  would  have  seemed, 
in  his  successor's  opinion,  as  little  in  place  as  George 
III.  would  have  appeared  at  the  installation  of 
President  Washington." 

One  biographer  of  Adams,  John  T.  Morse,  Jr., 
rejects  this  excuse  as  purposeless,  and  says:  "Adams 
sat  signing  appointments  to  office  and  attending  to 
business  till  near  the  close  of  the  last  hour  of  his 
term.  Then,  before  the  people  were  astir  on  the 
morning  which  ushered  in  the  day  of  Jefferson's 
inauguration,  he  drove  out  of  Washington.  It  was 
the  worst  possible  manifestation  of  all  those  petty 
faults  which  formed  such  vexatious  blemishes  in 
Adams's  singularly  compounded  character.  He  was 
crushed  beneath  an  intense  disappointment  which 
he  did  not  deserve;  he  was  humiliated  by  an 
unpopularity  which  he  did  not  merit." 

There  is  no  allusion  to  the  matter  in  the  letters 
of  Adams  to  his  wife.  The  series  of  published 
letters  to  her  from  him  closes  with  Feb.  16,  1801, 
and  in  the  final  letter  he  says: 

"The  election  will  be  decided  this  day  in  favor  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  as  it  is  given  out  by  good  authority. 
The  burden  upon  me  in  nominating  judges  and 
consuls  and  other  officers,  in  delivering  over  the 
furniture,  in  the  ordinary  business  at  the  close  of  a 
session,  and  in  preparing  for  my  journey  of  five  hun- 


198  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

dred  miles  through  the  mire,  is  and  will  be  very  heavy. 
My  time  will  all  be  taken  up." 

In  the  case  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  there  was 
much  more  excuse.  The  main  reason  for  his  absence 
from  Jackson's  inauguration  was  stated  tersely 
in  "Niles's  Register"  of  March  27,  1827:  "It  is 
proper  to  mention,  for  the  preservation  of  facts, 
that  General  Jackson  did  not  call  upon  President 
Adams,  and  that  Mr.  Adams  gave  not  his  attend- 
ance at  the  installation  of  President  Jackson." 
This  conduct  must  have  been  a  cause  of  grief  to 
the  editor  of  the  "National  Intelligencer,"  for 
four  years  earlier  he  had  written,  when  describing 
the  scene  which  followed  the  inauguration  of  Adams : 
"General  Jackson,  we  are  pleased  to  observe,  was 
among  the  earliest  of  those  who  took  the  hand  of 
the  President;  and  their  looks  and  deportment 
toward  each  other  were  a  rebuke  to  the  littleness  of 
party  spirit  which  can  see  no  merit  in  a  rival  and 
feel  no  joy  in  the  honor  of  a  competitor." 

Adams  himself  wrote  quite  fully  on  the  subject 
in  his  Diary.  I  condense  somewhat  an  entry  of 
Feb.  28,  1829: 

"On  the  11th  day  of  this  month  Andrew  Jackson, 
of  Tennessee,  was  declared  elected  President.  On 
the  same  day  the  President-elect  arrived  in  this  city 
and  took  lodgings  at  Gadsby's  Hotel.  He  has  not 
thought  proper  to  hold  any  personal  communication 
with  me  since  his  arrival.  I  sent  him  word  by 
Marshal  Ringgold  that  I  should  remove  with  my 
family  from  the  house,  so  that  he  may,  if  he  thinks 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS  199 

proper,  receive  his  visits  of  congratulation  here  on 
the  4th  of  March.  He  desired  Ringgold  to  thank 
me  for  this  information;  spoke  uncertainly  whether 
he  would  come  into  the  house  on  the  4th  or  not, 
but  said  if  it  would  be  in  any  manner  inconvenient 
to  my  family  to  remove,  he  wished  us  not  to  hurry 
ourselves  at  all,  but  to  stay  in  the  house  as  long  as 
it  should  suit  our  convenience,  were  it  even  a  month. 

"His  avoidance  of  me  has  been  noticed  in  the 
newspapers.  The  '  Telegraph  '  newspaper  has 
assigned  for  the  reason  of  this  incivility  that  he 
knows  I  have  been  personally  concerned  in  the  pub- 
lications against  his  wife  in  the  'National  Journal.' 
This  is  not  true.  I  have  not  been  privy  to  any  pub- 
lication in  any  newspaper  against  either  himself  or 
his  wife.  Within  a  few  days  another  reason  has  been 
assigned.  Mr.  David  Hoffman,  of  Baltimore,  urged 
me  to  attend  the  inauguration  and  said  in  that 
event  he  was  informed  it  was  Gen.  Jackson's 
intention  to  pay  me  a  visit,  his  reason  for  not  having 
done  it  before  having  been  the  chance  there  might 
have  been  of  his  meeting  Mr.  Clay  with  me.  Mr. 
Ringgold  says  Mr.  McLean,  the  Postmaster- General, 
told  him  that  he  had  conversed  with  the  General 
upon  his  abstaining  from  visiting  me,  and  that  the 
General  had  told  him  he  came  here  with  the  inten- 
tion of  calling  upon  me,  but  had  been  dissuaded 
from  it  by  his  friends." 

Under  the  date  of  March  3  occurs  this  entry: 
"About  nine  in  the  evening  I  left  the  President's 
house,  and  with  my  son  John  and  T.  B.  Adams,  Jr., 


200  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

came  out  and  joined  my  family  at  Meriden  Hill.'* 
On  the  following  day,  that  of  the  inauguration, 
there  is  the  following:  "This  day  Andrew  Jackson, 
of  Tennessee,  was  inaugurated  as  President  of  the 
United  States.  I  had  caused  a  notification  to  be 
published  in  the  *  National  Intelligencer'  and 
'  Journal,'  requesting  the  citizens  of  the  District 
and  others,  my  friends,  who  might  be  disposed  to 
visit  me,  according  to  the  usage  heretofore,  to  dis- 
pense with  that  formality.  Very  few,  therefore, 
came  out  .  .  .  The  day  was  warm  and  springlike, 
and  I  rode  on  my  horse,  with  Watkins,  into  the  city 
and  thence  through  F  street  to  the  Rockville 
Turnpike,  and  over  that  till  I  came  to  the  turn  of 
the  road  by  which  I  returned  over  College  Hill 
back  to  the  house." 

General  Jackson  was  very  much  in  evidence  at 
the  inauguration  of  his  successor,  Mr.  Van  Buren. 
The  two  rode  side  by  side  from  the  White  House 
to  the  Capitol,  and  back  again,  after  the  ceremonies, 
in  a  carriage  made  of  wood  from  the  frigate  Consti- 
tution, presented  by  the  Democrats  of  New  York. 
But  the  General  was  at  all  moments  the  central 
figure;  the  crowd  along  the  route  and  at  the  Capitol 
paid  only  slight  attention  to  the  new  President. 


? 


By  kind  permission  of  The  Century  Co. 
THE   CRUSH    AT    THE    WHITE    HOUSE   AFTER   JACKSON's   INAUGURATION. 


CHAPTER  \TI 

" Tippecanoe"  and  other  inaugurations 

Of  the  inauguration  of  General  William  Henry 
Harrison,  in  1841,  John  Quincy  Adams  says  in  his 
Diary  that  it  was  celebrated  with  demonstrations 
of  popular  feeling  unexampled  since  that  of  Wash- 
ington in  1789.  It  had  more  of  a  left-over  cam- 
paign flavor  than  any  other  inauguration  either 
before  or  since.  The  great  "Tippecanoe"  canvass, 
with  its  log  cabins  and  hard  cider,  its  enormous 
processions,  its  boundless  enthusiasm  and  incessant 
uproar,  got  under  such  headway  that  it  could  not 
be  stopped  with  election  day.  Enough  of  it  was 
still  in  motion  in  March  to  make  the  inauguration 
of  the  General  a  virtual  continuation  of  it,  so  far 
as  the  procession  was  concerned.  The  log  cabins 
were  brought  to  the  capital  for  the  occasion,  and 
many  of  the  clubs  came  with  their  regalia  and  ban- 
ners. A  magnificent  carriage  had  been  constructed 
by  his  admirers,  and  presented  to  General  Harrison, 
with  the  expressed  wish  that  he  ride  in  it  to  the 
Capitol;  but  he  declined  to  do  so,  insisting  upon 
riding  a  horse  instead.  The  crowd  of  visitors  along 
the  avenue  from  the  White  House  to  the  Capitol 
was  the  largest  yet  seen  in  Washington.  The  pro- 
cession created  such  enthusiasm  that  the  novel 
expedient    was    adopted    of   having   it    march    and 

(203) 


204  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

countermarch  several  times  before  leaving  its  hero 
at  the  Capitol.  For  two  hours  it  went  to  and 
fro  in  the  avenue  before  the  spectators  were  supposed 
to  have  their  fill  of  it.  Mr.  Adams,  who  saw  it  from 
his  window,  under  which  it  passed,  describes  it  in 
his  Diary  as  a  mixed  military  and  civil  cavalcade 
with  platoons  of  militia  companies,  Tippecanoe 
clubs,  students  of  colleges,  schoolboys,  a  half  dozen 
veterans  who  had  fought  under  the  old  hero  in  the 
War  of  1812,  sundry  awkward  and  ungainly  painted 
banners  and  log  cabins,  and  without  carriages  or 
showy  dresses.  The  cowp  d'oeil,  he  adds,  was  showy- 
shabby;  and  he  says  of  the  General:  "  He  was 
on  a  mean-looking  white  horse,  in  the  center  of 
seven  others,  in  a  plain  frock  coat,  or  surtout, 
undistinguishable  from  any  of  those  before,  behind, 
or  around  him."  The  day  was  cold  and  bleak, 
with  a  chilly  wind  blowing.  General  Harrison 
stood  for  an  hour  exposed  to  this  while  delivering 
his  address,  and  at  its  close  mounted  his  horse  and 
returned  to  the  White  House  with  the  procession 
again  as  an  escort. 

The  crowds  at  Polk's  inauguration  were  said  to 
be  the  largest  yet  seen  at  the  Capitol,  which  was 
undoubtedly  true;  for  as  the  country  has  advanced 
in  size,  the  number  of  people  going  to  Washington 
to  witness  the  advent  of  every  new  President  has 
steadily  increased.  Evidences  that  the  outdoor  cus- 
tom had  become  firmly  established  in  Polk's  time  is 
furnished  by  the  fact  that,  although  rain  fell  steadily 
throughout  the  day,  he  delivered  his  address  from 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS 


205 


the  portico  to  a  wide,  moving  sea  of  umbrellas,  with 
no  protection  save  an  umbrella  which  was  held  over 
his  head.  The  crowds  amused  themselves  during 
the  progress  of  the  procession    along  Pennsylvania 


r-T* 


DRAWX  BY  IRVING  B.  WILES. 

THE  APPROACH  TO  THE  CAPITOL  DURING  POLK's  INAUGURATION. 

(based  ON  A  CONTEMPORARY  PRINT  IN  HARPER's  WEEKLY.) 

BY  KIND  PERMISSION  OF  CENTURY  CO. 

avenue  by  repeating  the  favorite  cry  of  the  oppo- 
sition in  the  preceding  campaign,  "Who  is  James 
K.  Polk.^"  Roars  of  laughter  alwaiys  followed  this 
somewhat  worn,  but  always  amusing,  query.  An 
interesting  contemporary  note  of   this  inauguration 


206  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

is  the  following:  "Professor  Morse  brought  out  his 
magnetic  telegraph  to  the  portico  platform,  close  to 
one  side  of  it,  from  which  point  he  could  hear  every- 
thing that  went  on,  having  under  view  all  the  cere- 
monies performed,  transmitting  the  results  to  Balti- 
more as  fast  as  they  transpired." 

John  Quincy  Adams,  in  a  very  characteristic 
passage  in  his  Diary,  says  of  this  inauguration  under 
date  of  March  4,  1845:  "There  was  an  unusual 
degree  of  pomposity  paraded  in  the  inauguration  of 
James  K.  Polk  as  President  of  the  United  States  by 
the  Democracy;  but  I  witnessed  nothing  of  it.  A 
committee  of  arrangements  for  the  reception  and 
inauguration  of  the  President-elect  had  been 
appointed  by  the  Senate — all  rank  Democrats — who, 
in  a  very  polite  note,  enclosed  to  me  three  printed 
copies  of  the  arrangement,  with  a  notification  that 
a  position  had  been  assigned  to  the  ex-Presidents, 
which  the  committee  would  be  happy  to  have  me 
occupy.  I  did  not  avail  myself  of  the  invitation. 
There  was  a  procession  of  ten  or  eleven  military 
companies,  who  escorted  Mr.  Polk  and  Mr.  Tyler, 
who  rode  together  in  an  open  carriage,  from  Cole- 
man's National  Hotel  to  the  Capitol.  They  first 
assembled  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  whence  they  pro- 
ceeded to  a  platform  protruding  from  the  portico. 
There  Mr.  Polk  delivered  his  inaugural  address, 
half  an  hour  long,  to  a  large  assemblage  of 
umbrellas,  for  it  was  raining  hard  all  the  time.  The 
official  oath  was  then  administered  to  him  by  Chief 
Justice    Taney,    and    the    draggle  tail    procession. 


:-(/^  \  7^-^' 


Drawn  by  Irving  R.  Wiles. 


By  kind  permission  of  The  Century  Co. 


BUCHANAN  S    INAUGURATION. 
(From  a  contemporary  picture  in  "Harper's  Weekly.") 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         209 

thinned  in  numbers,  escorted  him  back  to  the 
President's  house. 

"At  night  there  were  two  balls:  one  at  Carusi's 
Hall,  at  ten  dollars  a  ticket,  of  all  parties;  the  other, 
of  pure  Democrats,  at  five  dollars  a  ticket,  at  the 
National  Theatre.  Mr.  Polk  attended  both,  but 
supped  with  the  true-blue  five-dollar  Democracy. 
My  family  and  myself  received  invitations  to  both, 
but  attended  neither." 

There  was  little  that  varied  the  now  well-estab- 
lished monotony  of  inauguration  ceremonies  when 
Franklin  Pierce  came  in,  in  1853,  and  James  Buchanan 
in  1857.  Pierce  was  one  of  the  most  buoyantly 
self-poised  men  who  ever  entered  upon  the  Presi- 
dency. He  made  the  journey  from  the  White 
House  to  the  Capitol  standing  erect  in  the  carriage 
beside  President  Fillmore,  and  bowing  constantly 
to  the  cheers  with  which  he  was  greeted.  At  the 
Capitol  he  distinguished  himself  by  being  the  first 
President  to  deliver  his  address  without  notes, 
speaking  in  a  remarkably  clear  voice,  and  arousing 
great  enthusiasm  by  his  handsome  appearance, 
dignified  bearing,  and  somewhat  unusual  oratorical 
powers. 

The  inauguration  ball  dates  from  the  very  begin- 
ning. There  was  a  ball  when  Washington  was 
inaugurated  in  New  York,  but,  owing  to  the  pressure 
of  other  demands  upon  his  time,  it  did  not  take 
place  till  the  evening  of  March  7.  Washington 
attended,  and  performed  a  minuet  with  Miss  Van 
Zandt,  and  danced  cotillons  with  Mrs.   Peter  Van 


210  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

Brugh  Livingston,  Mrs.  Maxwell,  and  others. 
There  was  no  ball  at  his  second  inauguration 
because  of  its  extremely  quiet  character,  and  there 
was  none  when  Mr.  Adams  came  in  because  of  the 
general  grief  over  Washington's  departure.  I  can 
find  no  mention  of  a  ball  when  Jefferson  was  inaugu- 
rated, but  there  was  one  when  Madison  came  in, 
and  since  then  there  has  been  no  break  in  the  cus- 
tom. There  were,  as  Mr.  Adams  records  in  the 
entry  quoted  above,  two  when  Polk  was  inaugu- 
rated, and  two  when  Taylor  succeeded  him — an 
administration  and  an  opposition  ball  on  each 
occasion,  both  very  well  attended.  The  crush  was 
so  great  at  the  Taylor  administration  ball  that  many 
persons  narrowly  escaped  injury,  and  there  were 
loud  complaints  because  of  the  inadequate  supply 
of  refreshments. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Lincoln's  first  inauguration 

For  six  weeks  or  more  previous  to  Lincoln's 
departure  from  Springfield  on  February  11,  1861,  to 
take  the  oath  of  ofiice  as  President,  the  newspapers 
of  the  country  had  been  filled  with  threats  of 
secession,  rumors  of  revolutions,  stories  of  plots  to 
seize  Washington  and  burn  the  public  buildings, 
and  to  prevent  the  counting  of  the  electoral  votes 
and  the  inauguration  of  the  new  President.  The 
journey  was  begun  amid  wide-spread  popular 
uneasiness  about  the  personal  safety  of  Lincoln. 
Whether  he  himself  shared  it  or  not  is  only  a  matter 
of  conjecture.  Herndon  records  that  he  was  "filled 
with  gloomy  forebodings  of  the  future"  as  he  was 
taking  leave  of  his  family  and  friends,  that  he  said 
to  him  that  the  "sorrow  of  parting  from  his  old 
associates  was  deeper  than  most  persons  would 
imagine,  but  it  was  more  marked  in  his  case  because 
of  the  feeling  which  had  become  irrepressible  that 
he  would  never  return  alive."  This  does  not 
imply  that  he  anticipated  immediate  danger.  In 
describing  his  departure  and  the  circumstances 
attending  his  farewell  speech.  Hay  and  Nicolay  write: 
"As  the  conductor  paused  with  his  hand  lifted  to 
the  bell-rope,  Mr.  Lincoln  appeared  on  the  platform 
of  the  car,  and  raised  his  hand  to  command  atten- 

(211) 


212  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

tion.  The  bystanders  bared  their  heads  to  the 
falling  snowflakes,  and,  standing  thus,  his  neighbors 
heard  his  voice  for  the  last  time,  in  the  city  of  his 
home,  in  a  farewell  address  so  chaste  and  pathetic 
that  it  reads  as  if  he  already  felt  the  tragic  shadow 
of  forecasting  fate. 

"ilf?/  Friends:  No  one,  not  in  my  situation,  can 
appreciate  my  feeling  of  sadness  at  this  parting.  To 
this  place,  and  the  kindness  of  these  people,  I 'owe 
everything.  Here  I  have  lived  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury, and  have  passed  from  a  young  to  an  old  man. 
Here  my  children  have  been  born,  and  one  is  buried. 
I  now  leave,  not  knowing  when  or  whether  ever  I 
may  return,  with  a  task  before  me  greater  than 
that  which  rested  upon  Washington.  Without  the 
assistance  of  that  Divine  Being  who  ever  attended 
him,  I  cannot  succeed.  With  that  assistance,  I 
cannot  fail.  Trusting  in  Him  who  can  go  with  me, 
and  remain  with  you,  and  be  everywhere  for  good, 
let  us  confidently  hope  that  all  will  yet  be  well.  To 
His  care  commending  you,  as  I  hope  in  your  prayers 
you  will  commend  me,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate 
farewell." 

No  one  can  read  that  without  recalling  involun- 
tarily the  farewell  speech  of  Washington  at  Alex- 
andria, quoted  earlier  in  these  pages.  It  has  the 
same  pathetic  note  of  affection  and  sadness  and 
humility.  It  is  not  my  purpose  to  describe  here  the 
journey  to  Washington,  with  its  secret  midnight  trip 
through  Baltimore.  That  is  set  forth  in  detail  by 
his  biographers.     The  fear  of  personal  assault  upon 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         213 

him  remained  after  his  arrival  in  Washington  and 
hung  like  a  sombre,  intangible  cloud  over  the  inaugu- 
ration ceremonies.  Great  precautions,  under  the 
personal  direction  of  Gen.  Scott,  had  been  taken  to 
guard  the  line  of  procession  from  Mr.  Lincoln's 
hotel  to  the  Capitol.  He  was  surrounded  by  military 
guards,  and  riflemen  in  squads  were  placed  on  the 
roofs  or  houses  along  Pennsylvania  avenue,  with 
orders  to  watch  the  windows  on  the  opposite  side 
and  to  fire  upon  them  in  case  any  attempt  should 
be  made  to  fire  from  them  on  the  Presidential 
carriage.  Troops  were  also  stationed  upon  the 
steps  of  the  Capitol  and  in  the  windows  of  the  wings. 
On  the  brow  of  the  hill,  not  far  from  the  north 
entrance  to  the  Capitol,  commanding  both  the 
approach  and  the  broad  platform  of  the  east  front, 
was  stationed  a  battery  of  flying  artillery,  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  which  Gen.  Scott  remained,  a 
careful  observer  during  the  entire  ceremonies,  ready 
to  take  personal  command  should  it  be  necessary. 

Arriving  at  the  Capitol,  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  com- 
panions passed  to  the  Senate  Chamber.  A  con- 
temporary observer  who  saw  the  outgoing  and 
the  incoming  Presidents  enter  arm-in-arm  wrote: 
"Buchanan  was  pale,  sad,  nervous;  Lincoln's  face 
was  slightly  flushed,  his  lips  compressed.  For  a  few 
minutes  they  sat  in  front  of  the  President's  desk. 
Mr.  Buchanan  sighed  audibly  and  frequently.  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  grave  and  impassive  as  an  Indian 
martyr."  When  they  passed  from  the  Senate 
Chamber  and  emerged  upon  the  platform  erected 


214  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

on  the  east  portico,  the  new  President  formed  one 
of  a  remarkable  group.  Chief  Justice  Taney, 
author  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision,  stood  ready  to 
administer  to  him  the  oath  of  office.  Near  by  was 
Senator  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Lincoln's  lifelong 
political  opponent  and  a  defeated  candidate  for  the 
Presidency.  With  them  was,  of  course,  the  retiring 
President.  When  Lincoln  arose  to  deliver  his 
address,  he  found  himself  encumbered  with  a  high 
silk  hat,  a  cane  and  a  roll  of  manuscript.  He  hesi- 
tated for  a  moment,  looking  for  some  place  upon 
which  to  deposit  his  hat,  when  Mr.  Douglas  stepped 
forward  and  took  it  from  him,  saying  in  a  whisper 
to  a  friend  as  he  passed  back  to  his  seat:  "If  I  can't 
be  President,  I  at  least  can  hold  his  hat."  The 
attendance  was  enormous,  and  as  Lincoln  began  his 
address  he  saw  before  him  the  largest  throng  that 
had  ever  gathered  to  greet  a  new  President,  though 
larger  ones  have  assembled  before  his  successors. 
Horace  Greeley,  who  was  on  the  platform,  wrote  in 
his  "Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life": 

"Mr  Lincoln  entered  Washington  the  victim  of 
a  grave  delusion.  A  genial,  quiet,  essentially  peace- 
ful man,  trained  in  the  ways  of  the  bar  and  the  stump, 
he  fully  believed  that  there  would  be  no  civil  war, — 
no  serious  effort  to  consummate  Disunion.  His 
faith  in  Reason  as  a  moral  force  was  so  implicit  that 
he  did  not  cherish  a  doubt  that  his  Inaugural 
Address,  whereon  he  had  bestowed  much  thought  and 
labor,  would,  when  read  throughout  the  South,  dis- 
solve the  Confederacy  as  frost  is  dissipated  by  a 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         215 

vernal  sun.  I  sat  just  behind  him  as  he  read  it,  on 
a  bright,  warm,  still,  March  day,  expecting  to  hear 
its  delivery  arrested  by  the  crack  of  a  rifle  aimed 
at  his  heart;  but  it  pleased  God  to  postpone  the 
deed,  though  there  was  forty  times  the  reason  for 
shooting  him  in  1860  that  there  was  in  '65,  and  at 
least  forty  times  as  many  intent  on  killing  or  having 
him  killed.  No  shot  was  then  fired,  however;  for 
his  hour  had  not  yet  come." 

Mr.  Greeley  also  relates  this  story,  which  may 
be  taken  as  an  authentic  reflection  of  Lincoln's  mind 
as  he  stood  at  the  threshold  of  the  Presidency; 

"Almost  everyone  has  personal  anecdotes  of 
*01d  Abe.'  I  knew  him  more  than  sixteen  years, 
met  him  often,  talked  with  him  familiarly;  yet,  while 
multitudes  fancy  that  he  was  always  overflowing 
with  jocular  narrations  or  reminiscences,  I  cannot 
remember  that  I  ever  heard  him  tell  an  anecdote  or 
story.  One,  however,  that  he  did  tell  while  in  this 
city,  on  his  way  to  assume  the  Presidency,  is  so 
characteristic  of  the  man  and  his  way  of  regarding 
portents  of  trouble,  that  I  here  record  it. 

"Almost  everyone  was  asking  him,  with  evident 
apprehension,  if  not  perturbation:  'What  is  to  be 
the  issue  of  this  Southern  effervescence.?  Are  we 
really  to  have  civil  war.?'  and  he  once  responded  in 
substance  as  follows: 

Many  years  ago,  when  I  was  a  young  lawyer, 
and  Illinois  was  little  settled,  except  on  her  southern 
border,  I,  with  other  lawyers,  used  to  ride  the 
circuit,  journeying  with  the  judge  from  county-seat 


216  OUR  POLITICAL  DRAMA 

to  county-seat  in  quest  of  business.  Once,  after  a 
long  spell  of  pouring  rain,  which  had  flooded  the 
whole  country,  transforming  small  creeks  into  rivers, 
we  were  often  stopped  by  these  swollen  streams, 
which  we  with  difficulty  crossed.  Still  ahead  of 
us  was  Fox  River,  larger  than  all  the  rest;  and  we 
could  not  help  saying  to  each  other:  "If  these 
streams  give  us  so  much  trouble,  how  shall  we  get 
over  Fox  River.^"  Darkness  fell  before  we  had 
reached  that  stream,  and  we  all  stopped  at  a  log 
tavern,  had  our  horses  put  out,  and  resolved  to  pass 
the  night.  Here  we  were  right  glad  to  fall  in  with 
the  Methodist  Presiding  Elder  of  the  circuit,  who 
rode  it  in  all  weather,  knew  all  its  ways,  and  could 
tell  us  all  about  Fox  River.  So  we  all  gathered 
around  him,  and  asked  him  if  he  knew  about  the 
crossing  of  Fox  River.  "Oh,  yes,"  he  replied,  "I 
know  all  about  Fox  River.  I  have  crossed  it  often, 
and  understand  it  well;  but  I  have  one  fixed  rule 
with  regard  to  Fox  River:  I  never  cross  it  till  I 
reach  it.'" 

Since  Lincoln's  time  each  succeeding  inauguration 
of  a  new  President  has  been  celebrated  in  much  the 
same  way,  with  a  steadily  increasing  multitude  of 
spectators,  and  a  swelling  measure  of  pomp  and 
pageantry.  In  outward  appearance  there  has  been 
much  similarity  in  these  recurring  quadrennial 
demonstrations;  but  each  has  had  a  distinct  indi- 
viduality shaped  by  the  personality  of  its  central 
figure  and  by  the  forces  which  prevailed  in  the 
election. 


INAUGURATION  INCIDENTS         219 

The  chief  characteristic  of  later  inaugurations 
has  been  the  steadily  increasing  number  of  people 
in  attendance.  At  both  inaugurations  of  General 
Grant  the  crowds  were  enormous;  but  those  which 
have  gathered  every  four  years  since  have  shown 
no  diminution  from  the  standard  of  bigness  then 
fixed.  That  standard,  which  stood  at  from  five  to 
eight  thousand  in  the  early  years  of  the  last  century, 
has  reached,  if  it  has  not  passed,  100,000.  At 
McKinley's  second  inauguration  there  was  a  military 
and  civic  parade  in  which  30,000  men  were  in  line, 
while  the  number  of  spectators  who  thronged  the 
entire  length  of  Pennsylvania  avenue  and  packed 
every  inch  of  available  space  in  front  of  the  inaugu- 
ration platform,  though  a  heavy  rain  was  falling, 
defied  computation. 


INDEX 


PAGE 

ADAMS,  HENRY,  his  descriptiou  of  Aaron  Burr,       .   182-183 
his  excuse  for  John  Adams's  non-attendance  at  Jeffer- 
son's inauguration,  ......     19G-197 

ADAMS,  JOHN :  His  Diary, 18 

present  at  Washington's  taking  oath,  .  .          .   168 

his  inauguration,  ......     175-177 

his  gloom  at  Washington's  presence,    .  .  .  .175 

his  account  of  his  inauguration,   ....     176-178 

Henry  Adams's  partial  excuse  for  John  Adams's  non-at- 
tendance at  Jefferson's  inauguration,          .  .    196-197 
More's  comments  on  this,    ......   197 

Adams's  own  words  at  his  non-attendance,  .         .         .  198 

ADAMS,  JOHN  Q., 184 

his  non-attendance  at  Jackson's  inauguration,       .          .   198 
his  own  reasons  on,     ......   198,  200 

ADAMS,  SAMUEL, 19 

AIMES,  FISHER,   his  account   of    Wasliington's   inaugu- 
ration address,        .......     172-173 

ANTI-MASONIC  PARTY, 24 

First  National  Convention  in  Philadelphia,  1830,  .     24 

Second  National  Convention  in  Baltimore,  1831,  .         .     24 

ARMY,  Reunion  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,       .          .     83 


BALL,  The  Inauguration, 

.    209-210 

P.ALTIMORE  CONVENTION  in  1832,    . 

.     31 

Jackson's  work  in,      . 

31-32 

its  adoption  of  the  two-thirds  rule. 

.     29 

in  1856       ...... 

.     29 

231 

222  INDEX 


PAG>; 


BALTIMOKE  CONVENTION  in  1844,    .  .  .         .29 

its  characteristics,       ......         71-75 

BEARD,  FRANK,  caricaturist, 139 


BLAINE,  JAMES  G.,  his  fate  like  Clay's, 

a  candidate  for  longer  period  than  any  other  man, 

charged  with  disabusing  the  Speaker's  office, 

his  explanation  of  this  charge,     . 

his  nomination  in  1884, 

his  defeat,  ..... 

his  refusal  of  the  candidacy  in  1888, 

his  acceptance  of  the  Secretaryship  of  State, 

his  congratulations  on  Harrison's  nomination. 


76 

76 
76 
76 
79 
79-80 
80 
80 
80 

his  endeavours  to  the  nomination  in  1892,    .          .         80-81 
his  death,  .........     81 

"Puck's  "  famous  caricatures  of,  ....   156 

BRECKINRIDGE,  his  nomination  at  the  Baltimore  conven- 
tion,     ..........     72 

BUCHANAN,  JAMES,  caricatures  of,      .         .    122,  124,  127 
inauguration  of,  .         .  .  .  .  .         .          .  209 

BUNNER,  H.   C,  literary  satirist, 146 

BURR,  AARON,  Vice-President,      ....    181-182 

Henry  Adams's  description  of,    .  .  .          .     180-181 

BUTLER,  BENJAMIN  F.  (N.  Y.),  his  action  at  the  1844 

Democratic  Convention,   ......     40 

his  withdrawal  of  Van  Buren's  name  from  the  nomina- 
tion,         40 

(Mass.)  his  charge  of  forged  tickets  at  the  Baltimore 
convention,     ........     75 

CAMERON,  JOHN,  caricaturist, 138 

CARICATURES,  political,  rarity  of  the  Jackson,       .          .   Ill 
"A  serviceable  garment,"    ......   105 

American  different  from  English,         .          .  .     121-122 

"An  heir  to  the  throne," 114 

"Boston  notion  of  the  World's  Fair,"  .  .  .100 

campaign  of  1860,       .......  127 


INDEX 


22S 


PAGE 

CARICATUEES,  early  history  of,     .         .         .         .  113,  117 

"Fancied  Security," 99 

"Jackson  clearing  the  kitchen,"  .  .  .  .  .97 
"Letting  the  cat  out  of  the  bag,"  ....  110 
"Loco  Foco  candidates  travelling,"  ....  102 
"  Love's  Labour  Lost,"        ......   147 

"  Me  and  Jack," 151 

of  Lincoln's  first  campaign,          .....   125 

"  Phryne  before  the  Chicago  Tribunal,"        .  .          .   149 

printed  as  lithographic  sheets,     .  .          .  .          .111 

"Progressive  Democracy,"  ......  157 

"  Punch  "  cartoons,      .......   113 

"Red-Hot  Republicans  on  the  Democratic  Gridiron,"  .   145 

"  Running  the  Machme," 13& 

"The  Alarm," 129 

"  The  Council," 131 

"  The  Democratic  Platform, " 115 

"The  Elephant  and  his  Keepers,"  ....  155 
"  The  great  match  at  Baltimore,"  ....  119 
"The  Great  Presidential  Sweep-stakes,"       .         .         .107 

"The  Impending  Crisis," 123 

"The  Irrepressible  Conflict," 142 

"  The  Mustang  Team," 112 

"TheNigger  in  the  Woodpile," 126 

"The  Old  Complaint," 135 

"  The  right  man  for  the  right  place,"  .  .         .         .108 

"  The  Special  Train," 133 

their  style,  ........   Ill 

the  "  Secession  Movement,"         .....   147 

"The  True  Issue,"  or  "That's  what's  the  matter,"  .  140 
the  weekly  cartoon,     ......  141,  158 

"  Why  don't  you  take  it?  " 144 

"  Young  America,"     .......  120 

"  !  " 153 

CARTOONS,  illustrated  weekly,  ....  141,  158 
political,  modern,        ......    156-157 


224 


INDEX 


CASS,  GENERAL,  Van  Bureii's  competitor  in  1834,  .     37 

CAUCUS,  origin  of  word,  ......     17 

its  work  before  tiie  Revolution,    ....         19-20 

CAUCUS  CLUB,  Adams's  account  of,  in  1763,  .         .     18 

CAUCUSES,  Congressional,       .... 
early,  like  modern  "machines,"  . 
legislative,  .......        21, 

CAULKERS,  17, 

CHARLESTON  CONVENTION,  1852,  its  adoption  of  the 
two-thirds  rule,        ..... 

of  1860, 

its  adjournment  at  Baltimore, 

its  characteristics,        ..... 

CHICAGO  CONVENTION  of  1860, 

of  1880,     

its  characteristics,       ..... 

CHOATE,  RUFUS,  his  relation  with  Webster, 
his  speech  on  Webster,         .... 

CINCINNATI  CONVENTION  in  1876,    . 

CLAY,  E.   W., 

CLAY,  HENRY,  nominated  by  Baltimore  Convention, 

his  "Infant  School," 

method  by  which   he  was  defeated  at  the  Harrisburg 
Convention  in  1839,          ......     33 

his  defeat  by  the  unit  rule,  .  .  .          .          .33 

Greeley's  admission  of  the  plot  against,       .  .         .34 

his  desire  for  nomination,    ......     44 

Wise's  description  of  Clay's  disappointment,        .  .     44 

Harrison  offers  him  a  Cabinet  position,         .          .         .45 
his  nomination  in  1844  by  Whig  party,         .         .         .45 
Schurz's  description  of  his  defeat  in  1844,   .          .         45-46 
his  own  words  of  his  defeat,         .  .         .          .         .46 

his  debts  paid  by  unknown  benefactors,        .         .         .46 
his  retirement  at  Ashland,  ......     47 

his  chagrin  at  the  Taylor  movement  in  1848,         .          .     47 
his  refusal  to  support  Taylor,       .         .          .          .         .48 


21 
23 
23 
18 


.  29 
.  71 
.  71 
.  72 
58-61 
82-85 
90-91 
54 
54 
75 
118-119 
24 
24 


INDEX 


225 


PAGE 

CLINTON,  GOVERNOR, 165 

COCHRANE,  COL.  JOHN,  in  caricature,         .         .         .140 
COGSWELL,  S.  JAMES  LLOYD,  his  description  of  Wash- 
ington's landing  in  New  York  in  1789,    .          .          .    164-165 
CONKLING,  SENATOR,  his  attitude  to  his  opponent  in 

1880, 84-85 

his  resolution  on  the  Grant  candidacy,  .          .         .86 

his  advocacy  of  the  unit  rule,       .          .  .          .         .86 

his  rout  by  General  Garfield,       ....        86-87 

his  astounding  arrogance,    .  .  .          .  .          .88 

his  nomination  speech  for  Grant,  .          .  .         88-89 

his  attack  on  Blaine,  .         .         .         .         .         .89 

his  insolence  to  the  anti-Grant  delegates,     .  .  .90 

CONNECTICUT  TOWN  MEETING,  Goodrich's  account 


of,            .           .           . 

.     20 

CONVENTION,  Chicago,  in  1880,     . 

84-85 

its  characteristics,       , 

90-91 

in  Baltimore,  1831, 

.     24 

in  Baltimore,  1832, 

.     31 

in  Charleston,  1860, 

.     71 

in  Chicago,  1860, 

.58-65 

in  Chicago,  1880, 
in  Cincinnati,  1876, 

82-85 
.     75 

in  Harrisburg,  1839, 
in  Philadelphia,  1900, 
Republican,  of  1880, 
Republican  State,  of  ] 

Uinoi 

s,  of  1860, 

32-43 
.  27 
.  82 
,  125 

Third  Term,        .... 

.     82 

CONVENTIONS,  first  national, 

24,  31 

national :  Gradual  growth  out  of  State 
more  of  tragedy  than  comedy  in, 
evidence  of  this  in  biographies, 

's  conventions,  .  24 
.  43 
.     43 

disappointments  from, 
nominating,         .... 
their  origin,         .... 

!  .  -  43 
.  17 
.     17 

nominating,  origin  of, 
15 

• 

.     21 

226  INDEX 

PAGE 

CONVENTIONS,  State  nominatiiag,  first  called  for,  .         .     21 
CURRIER  &  IVES,  cartoon  publishers,    .  .  .    117,  121 

CURTIS,  GEORGE  WILLIAM,  his  renewal  of  Mr.  Gid- 

diugs's  motion,        .......     63 

his  dejection  at  Seward's  defeat,  .         .         .         .66 

DALRYMPLE,  caricaturist, 146 

"  DARK  HORSE,"  the  first  in  convention  nominations,       .     37 
DAVIS,  JOHN,  his  "faked"  account  of  Jefferson's  inau- 
guration,        .........   179 

DAWES,  TOM, 18 

DODGE,  MARY  A.,  her  account  of  the  Cincinnati  Conven- 
tion,       .........     77 

her  account  of  Blaine  after  Cincinnati  Convention,        .     78 
DOUGLAS,    STEPHEN    A.,    victim   of  the    Two-Thirds 

Rule, 68 

his  own  view  of,  .......     68 

caricatures  of,     .......  •   127 

his  courtesy  to  Lincoln  on  his  first  inauguration,  .  .   214 

DOYLE,  JOHN,  his  method, 115 

his  political  caricatures,      .         .         .     112,  113,  115,  146 

DOYLE,  RICHARD,  caricaturist, 113 

DUER,    WILLIAM    A.,    his   account  of   Washington   at 
the  Adams's  inauguration,      ......   178 

FILLMORE,  FARMER, 122,  124 

FOSTER,    SIR   AUGUSTUS,  his    estimate  of  Madison, 

185-186 

FRANKLIN  HOUSE,  New  York, 166 

"FREMONT  CART,"  the, 122-123 

FREMONT,  JESSIE  B.,  caricature  of,     .         .         .    122-124 

GARFIELD,  GENERAL,  his  rout  of  Conkling,         .        86,  87 

GIDDINGS,  his  motion  rejected, 62 

his  motion  carried,      .......     63 

GILLAM,  caricaturist, 146,  155,  157 


INDEX  227 


PAOE 


GILLRAY,  JAMES, Ill 

his  influence  on  political  caricatures,    .         .     Ill,  112,  146 

GOODRICH,  Ms  account  of  the  Connecticut  town  meeting,  .     20 

GORDON,   WILLIAM,  his  account  of  the  caucus  in  1788,  .     19 

GRANT,  GEN.  U.  S.,  his  tour,         ....        82-83 

his  candidacy  for  a  third  term,    .         .         .         .         .84 

his  opinion  on  his  third-term  candidacy,       .         .         .83 

his  visits  to  Cuba  and  Mexico,     ....        83,  84 

his  triumphal  progress  in  1880,    .....     84 

Conkling's  support  of,  in  1880, 86 

Garfield's  opposition  to,  in  1880,  .         .         .         .87 

Conkling's  nominating  speech  for,        .          .  .        88,  89 

both  inaugurations  of,  ......  214 

GREELEY,  HORACE,  his  presence  at  the  Harrisburg  Con- 
vention iu  1839, 32 

his  frank  admission  of  the  plot  to  defeat  Clay,     .          .     34 
his  account  of  Tyler  and  his  quarrel,    .          .  .          .51 

caricatures  of, 122,  128,  140 

his  account  of  Lincoln's  first  inauguration,  .         .    214-216 
GRIGSBY,  on  Madison,    .         .         .         .         .         .         .185 

"H.  B.,"  see  Doyle,  John. 

HALSTEAD,  MURAT,  his  description   of  scenes  in  the 
Wigwam,       .........     64 

HAMILTON,  GAIL,  see  Dodge,  Mary  A. 
HAMILTON,  Washington's  words  to,  on  his  presidency, 

161,  162,  174 
"HARPER'S  WEEKLY,"  caricatures  in, 

129,  131,  133,  135,  137,  141,  142 
HARRISBURG  CONVENTION  in  1839,  .         .        32,  43 

HARRISON,  GEN.  W.  H. ,  his  nomination  at  Harrisburg 

Convention  by  means  of  the  Unit  Rule,    .  .         .34 

his  offer  to  Clay  of  a  Cabinet  position,  .         .         .45 

his  support  by  Webster,       ......     50 

inaugural  address  composed  for  him  by  Webster,  and 
rejected, 50,  51 


228 


INDEX 


HARRISON,  GEN.  W.  H.,  his    own  address    revised  by 

Webster, 51 


inauguration  of, 


HARVEY,  PETER,  his  account,  in  his  "Reminiscences," 


of  Webster's  revision  of  Harrison's  address, 

his  meeting  with  Webster,  . 
HERNDON,  his  account  of  Lincoln's  attitude  in  1860, 

his  account  of  the  Wigwam, 
HOFFMAN,  DAVID, 
HUMPHREYS,  COLONEL,      . 

INAUGURATION,  the  first,    . 

a  national  festival, 

Washington  to  Lafayette  on, 

Washington  to  Hamilton  on, 

Washington  to  Knox  on, 

Washington's  Diary  on, 

description  of,  in  New  York, 

the  second, 

Adams's,    . 

Jeffersonian  simplicity  in, 

Jefferson's, 

clothes  and  customs  at, 

Madison's, 

first  outdoor, 

Monroe's,   . 

non-attendance  by  previous  Presidents  at. 

General  Jackson's, 

Van  Buren's, 

General  Harrison's, 

Polk's, 

Pierce's,     . 

Buchanan's, 

Grant's, 

Lincoln's  first, 
INAUGURATIONS,  chief  characteristic  of  later, 


203-204 


50,  51 

.  55 

59,  60 

62,  63 

.  199 

.  184 

.  161 

.  161 

.  161 

161-162 

.  162 

.  162 

167-168 

174-175 

177-178 

.  179 

179-201 

184,  187 

.  184 

186,  187 

.  186 

196,  200 

.  198 

.  200 

203-204 

204-207 

.  209 

.  209 

.  214 

211,  219 

.  217 


INDEX  229 


PAGE 


IRVING,  WASHINGTON,  his  description  of  Washington 

at  the  time  of  the  taking  of  the  oath,        .         .         .  171 
on  Madison,        ........   185 

IVES,  JAMES  M.,  his  contribution  to  caricature  history,  .   118 
IVES  &  CUERIER,  cartoon  publishers,    .         .         .    117,  121 

JACKSON,  GENERAL, 24 

his  alliance  with  a  new  method  of  nominating  candidates,  25 
his  nomination  of  Van  Buren,      .  .  .         .  .25 

his  resolution  establishing  the  two-third  rule,       .         25-26 
his  success  with  the  convention  system  in  1832,    .  .     31 

his  preparations  for  Van  Buren' s  nomination,       .          .     31 
his  work  at  the  Baltimore  Convention  in  1832,     .  .     31 

rarity  of  caricatures  of,        .         «          .         .         .          .111 

in  caricature,       ......      97,  137,  138 

his  entry  upon  the  Presidency,    .         .         .         .         .188 

Webster's  description  of,     .....  .   188 

Stansbury's  description  of,  ....     188-190 

description  of  his  White-House  reception,    .         .         .  193 
his  second  inauguration,      ......  194 

his  personal  appearance  described  by  Schouler,  .  .  194 
John  Q.  Adams's  non-attendance  at  the  inauguration  of,  198 
in  evidence  at  Van  Buren' s  inauguration,      .          .  .   200 

JEFFERSON,  THOMAS, 174 

his  desire  for  simplicity,      .          .         .  .          .  .179 

his  inauguration,         .  .         .  .  .          .    179,  201 

Thornton's  account  of  his  inauguration,        .         .  .   180 

Maclay's  description  of,  at  his  inauguration,  .  181,  182 
his  dislike  of  Burr,     .         .  .....   183 

"JIM  CROW,"  song,  by  Thomas  D.  Rice,         .         .         .113 

JOHNSON,  ANDREW,  reasons  for  his  non-attendance  at 
the  inauguration  ceremony  of  his  successor,     .         .         .   196 

"JUDGE,"  caricatures  in,  ......   143 

KEPPLER,  JOSEPH,  caricaturist,   .         .     143,  144,  145,  156 
KNOX,  GENERAL,  Washington's  words  to,  on  his  Presi- 
dency, ..........  162 


230 


INDEX 


PAGE 

LAFAYETTE,   GENERAL,    Washington's    words  to,  ou 
his  Presidency,       ........   159 

LEECH,  JOHN,  caricaturist, Ill 

LINCOLN,  ABRAHAM,  his  first  nomination,    .  .          .     58 

his  desire  for  the  nomination  in  1860,  .  .          .58 

his  Cooper  Institute  speech,  .  .  .  .  .58 
his  letters  to  a  Kansas  friend  in  1800,  .          .        58,  59 

his  attitude  to  his  candidacy,  ....  59,  GO 
his  nomination  a  necessity,  .  .  .  .  .60 

his  nomination  at  the  Wigwam  at  the  third  ballot,  (ji),  66 
his  reception  of  the  news  of  his  nomination,  .  .  67 
caricatures  of  his  first  campaign,  .  .         .   125 

"Nigger  in  the  Woodpile,"  .....   126 

caricatures  of  campaign  of  1860,  ....   127 

contemptuous  view  of,  in  caricature,  .  .  .  136,  140 
his  first  inauguration,  .....    211,  219 

his  journey  to  Washington  for,     .  .  .  .211 

his  farewell  speech  at  Springfield  in  1861,  .  .  .  218 
Hay   and   Nicolay's   account   of    his    departure   from 

Springfield, 211,  212 

General  Scott's  precautions  at  inauguration,  .         .  213 

his  demeanour  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  .         .    213,  214 

Greeley's  account  of  the  inauguration  of,      .  .    214,  216 

LIVINGSTON,  CHANCELLOR, 168 

LIVINGSTON,  MRS.  PETER  VAN  BURGH,         .         .  210 

LODGE,  H.  CABOT,  on  Webster's  desire  for  nomination,     49 

his  opinion  on  Webster's  last  candidacy,      .         .         .54 

M'KINLEY,  W.,  his  second  inauguration,  .  .  .   219 

MACLAY,  SENATOR,  his  account  of  Washington's  inau- 
guration address,     ......    171,  172 

his  description  of  Jefferson  in  1790,     .         .         .    181,  182 

M'LEAN, 199 

M'CLELLAN,  GENERAL,  caricature  of,  .         .    139,  140 

M'CLURE,  COL.  A.  K.,  his  account  of  Scott's  defeat,       .     35 

his  account  of  Blaine  after  the  Cincinnati  Convention,     78 


INDEX 


231 


M'CLURE,  COL.  A.  K.,  his   reasons   for   Johnson's   non- 
attendance  at  the  inauguration  ceremony  of  his  successor,  196 
MADISON,  JAMES,  ''  a  walking  argument  in  favour  of  the 

encouragement  of  native  wool,"         ....   184 

descriptions  of,  by  Adams,  Irving,  and  Grigsby,    184,  185 

estimate  of,  by  Sir  A,  Foster,      ....    185,  186 
MAJORITY  RULE, 
MARSHALL,  JOHN, 

Story's  description  of, 

his  distrust  of  Jefferson, 
MAURER,  LOUIS,  caricaturist, 
MAXWELL,  MRS., 
MONROE,  JAMES,  his  inauguration 
MORSE'S  TELEGRAPH;  Congress 

its  first  practical  use  in  reporting  1844  convention, 

Schouler's,  account  of,         ....  . 

MORSE,  JOHN  T.,  JR.,  on  J.  Q.  Adams, 

his  comments  on  Adams's  non-attendance  at  Jefferson's 
inauguration,  ....... 


s  appropriation  for. 


30 
181 
182 
183 
128 
210 
186-187 

41 


41 
41 

186 

197 


NAST,  THOMAS,  caricaturist,  ....    141,  142 

NATIONAL  ASSEMBLY  of  young  men  at  Washington, 

1832, 24 

"NATIONAL  INTELLIGENCER,"  .  .  .  198-200 
NATIONAL  REPUBLICAN  PARTY,  .  .  .  .24 
NEW  YORK,  its  reception  of  Washington  in  1789,      164-168 

"NILES'S  REGISTER," 198 

NOMINATIONS,  directly  from  the  people,  ...  22 
early  plans  of  politicians  for  controlling,  .  .  22,  23 
influence  of  the  Two-Thirds  Rule  on,  .         .         .        29,  30 


OGLESBY,  "DICK," 
"OLD  FOX,"  the,    . 
OPPER,  caricaturist, 
OSGOOD,  SAMUEL, 


125 
124 
146 
166 


232 


INDEX 


PAGE 

"  PALACE,  THE," 183 

PARTKIDGE,  BERNARD,  caricaturist,   .         .         .         .114 
"  PENNSYLVANIA  PACKET,"  on  Washington  journey,  163 
PHILADELPHIA,  its  banquet  to,  and  reception  of,  Wash- 
ington in  1789, 164 

PICKERING,  JOHN,  "  Vocabulary  of  Americanisms,"      .     17 
PIERCE,  FRANKLIN,  caricatures  of,       .         .         .    122,  124 

inauguration  of,  .......  209 

POLITICS,  early  trickery  and  manipulation  in,           .  .     23 
POLK,  JAMES  K.,  his  support  at  the  Democratic  Conven- 
tion in  1844, 37,  38 

his  name  presented  by  the  New  Hampshire  delegate  in 
1844, 38 

by  Maryland  delegate, 

stampede  for, 

opinion  on  his  candidacy  by  the  New 
Post,"     .... 

inauguration  of, 

John  Q.  Adams's  account  of, 
"PRINCE  JOHN," 
"PUCK,"  caricatures  in,   . 

the  Blaine  caricatures  of,    . 
"PUNCH,"       .... 


.     39 
39,  40,  41 
York  "Evening 

.  41 

204-206 

206-208 

.  124 

143,  144 

147-153,  156 

113,  114,  146 


QUINCY,  ELIZA  MORTON,  her  description  of  Washing- 
ton taking  the  oath,        ......    168,  171 


RAYMOND,  HENRY  J.,  caricatures  of,  . 
REED,  SPEAKER,  his  retort, 
RICE,  THOMAS  D.,  his  "Jim  Crow  "  song, 
RINGGOLD, 


122,  128 
44 
113 
199 


SAMBOURNE,  LINLEY, 

SCHOULER,  his  account  of  the  Morse  Telegraph  report, 

his  account  of  Jackson's  personal  appearance, 
SCHURZ,    CARL,   his    description    of    Clay's    defeat   in 

1844, 45,  46 


113 

41 

194 


INDEX  233 


PAGE 


SCHUEZ,  CARL,  caricatures  of, 143 

SCOTT,  GENERAL,  his  support  by  Weed  and  Greeley,     .     35 
Beard's  caricature  of,  ......   139 

his    precautions    for  Lincoln's  safety  at   his   first    in- 
auguration,     ........  213 

SEWARD,   description  of  the  methods  of  his  supporters 

at  the  Wigwam,       .         .         .         .         .         .       64,  65 

his  reception  of  the  news  of  his  defeat,          .  .       66,  67 

his  defeat  unnerving  to  friends,   .  .  .  .          .66 

his  famous  phrase  used  in  caricature,   .  .  .          .128 

SMITH,  GOLD  WIN,  his  account  of  Webster's  last  days,   .     57 
STANSBURY,  ARTHUR   J.,    description    of    Jackson's 
entry  upon  the  Presidency,      .....     188-190 

ST  AN  WOOD'S  History  of  the  Presidency,  .          .  .29 

STEVENS,  THADDEUS,  his  control  of  the  Virginia  dele- 
gation at  Harrisburg,        ......     35 

his  support  of  Harrison,      .....       35,  36 

STORY,  JOSEPH,  his  description  of  John  ^Marshall,         .   182 
account  of  Jackson's  White-House  reception,        .   193,  194 

TANEY,  CHIEF  JUSTICE, 208,  214 

TAYLOR,  GENERAL,  movement  in  his  favour  in  1848,    .     47 

his  candidacy  for  President,         .  .  .          .  .52 

TAYLOR,  caricaturist, 146 

TENNIEL,  JOHN,  caricaturist, 113 

TEXAS  QUESTION,  THE, 38 

THIRD-TERM  CONVENTION, 82 

THORNTON,  EDWARD,  his  account  of  Jefferson's  inau- 
guration,       .........  180 

TILTON,  THEODORE,  caricature  of,        .         .         .         .140 

"  TIPPECANOE  "  canvass, 203,  205 

TWO-THIRDS  RULE   adopted  in  the  conventions  in  1832 

and  1836, 26 

Stanwood's  account  of  the  vote  in  1844  sustaining  this 
rule, 29 

its  influence  on  the  nomination,   ....       29,   30 


234 


INDEX 


TYLER,  JOHN,       . 

identified  as  the  Fiddling  Nero, 
his  treachery  to  the  party,  . 


PA«K 

34 

88 
51 


UNIT  RULE  united  with  Two-Thirds  Rule, 
its  adoption  at  the  Harrisburg  Convention, 
its  effect  on  Clay's  success, 
its  effect  on  the  nomination  of  Harrison, 
Conkling's  advocacy  of,  in  1880, 

UTICA,  meeting  of  first  State  Nominating  Convention  at, 


.'■50 

33 

86 
22 


VAN  BUREN, 2o 

his  rejection  for  the  nomination  of  President  in  1836,  .  26 

his  rejection  in  1840,  .......  26 

leading  candidate  in  1844,  ......  37 

his  betrayal, 42 

caricatures  of, 119,  121,  124 

his  inauguration,          .......  200 

VAN  ZANDT,   MISS, 209 


161, 


162, 


WASHINGTON,  GEORGE,  his  inauguration,  . 
his  words  to  Lafa^'ette  on,    . 
his  words  to  Hamilton  on  Candidacy,    . 
his  words  to  General  Knox  on,     . 
his  Diary  on,        ..... 
his  journey  from  Mount  Vernon  to  New  York, 
his  response  to  the  Mayor  of  Alexandria, 
his  triumphal  entry  into  Philadelphia  in  1789, 
his  landing  in  New  York,    .... 
description  of  his  taking  the  oath, 
accounts  of  his  appearance    and  inaugural  address  in 

1789, 171, 

his  presence  at  Adams's  inauguration,  .  .   175, 

Duer's  account  of  his  leave-taking  on  Adams's  inau- 
guration, ........ 


161 
161 
162 
162 
162 
163 
.  163 
163,  164 


164,  165 
168-171 


172 
176 


178 


INDEX  235 

PAGE 

WEBSTER,  DANIEL,  his  desire  for  a  Presidential  nomina- 
tion,       .........  49 

his  nomination  by  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,      49,  50 
his  relation  with  Weed  on  the  Presidency,  .          .         .50 

his  support  of  Harrison,      ......  50 

composes  an  inaugural  address  for  Harrison,         .          .  50 

his  revision  of  Harrison's  address,        .         .         .       50,  51 

his  resignation  of  the  Secretaryship  of  State,         .          .  51 

his  refusal  to  permit  Xew  Hampshire  to  nominate  him,  51 

his  support  of  Clay,    .......  51 

his  re-election  to  the  Senate  by  Massachusetts,     .         .  51 

his  conversation  with  Thurlow  Weed  on  the  Presidency,  52 

his  speech  at  Marshlield,     ......  52 

.  53 

.  53 

.  53 

.  53 

.  54 

.  54 

.  55 

.  56 

.  56 


his  letter  to  a  friend  on  Taylor,   . 

Weed's  criticisms  of,  on  Taylor's  election, 

his  final  appearance  as  a  candidate  in  1852, 

his  speech  on  the  Wilmot  Proviso, 

Choate's  loyalty  to,     . 

Lodge's  opinion  on  his  last  candidacy, 

his  disappointment  at  his  failure, 

his  recommendation  of  Scott, 

his  death,  ...... 

his  description  of  Jackson's  entry  upon  the  Presidency,  188 
WEED,  THURLOW,  his  account  of  the  first  nominating 

convention,     ........     22 

his  campaign  against  Clay  in  1839,       .  .  .  .32 

his  own   account  of  his  campaign   in   his  "Autobiog- 

raphj-,"  .........     33 

his  relation  with  Webster  on  the  latter's  desire  for  the 

Presidency,     ........     50 

his  conversation  with  Webster  on  the  Presidency,  .     52 

his  criticisms  of  W^ebster  on  Taylor's  election,      .  .     53 

WHIG  PARTY,  THE, 32 

its  adoption  of  the  convention  system,  .          .  .32 

its  first  convention  at  Harrisburg,  Pa.,          .  .  .32 

its  nomination  of  Clay  in  1844,   .         .         .         .         .45 


236  INDEX 

I'AGK 

WHIG  PARTY,  THE,    Carl    Schurz's  description   of   its 

grief  at  Clay's  defeat, 45,  46 

WIGWAM,  THE, GO 

the  first  example  of  uiodern  convention  buildings,          .     60 
Herndon's  account  of,          .....       62,  6'A 
WILMOT  PROVISO,  THE,  Webster's  speech  on,     .         .     53 
WISE,  HENRY  A.,  his  description  of  Clay's  disappoint- 
ment,      44 

WOODHULL,  VICTORIA,  in  caricature,  .  .  .140 

WOOLSEY,  CAPTAIN, 165 

WRIGHT,  SILAS,  his  nomination  for  second  place  in  1844,     41 
declines  the  nomination  to  office  by  telegraph,        .     41,  42 


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